On December 14th, Indian-origin Leena Nair was appointed the new global chief executive (CEO ) of the French luxury group Chanel.
Chanel¡¯s statement remarked on Nair¡¯s ¡°global reputation for progressive and human-centred leadership, delivering significant business impact¡±. It described her as a ¡°visionary leader whose ability to champion a long-term, purpose-driven agenda is matched with a consistently strong record of business outcomes¡±.
"Leena has been a pioneer throughout her career at Unilever, but no more so than in her role as CHRO, where she has been a driving force on our equity, diversity and inclusion agenda, on the transformation of our leadership development, and on our preparedness for the future of work. She has played a critical role in building our purpose-led, future-fit organisation, which is now the employer of choice in over 50 countries globally," Unilever CEO Alan Jope said.
But that is not the only reason why Nair has been appointed as the CEO. She holds the distinction of being "the first female, first Asian, youngest ever" chief human resources officer (CHRO) of Unilever. She is also a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive (ULE).
The 52-year-old's professional career has been 30 years long. According to Money Control, she had joined?the Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) as a management trainee, back in 1992, after obtaining a gold medal from the Xavier School of Management (which is one of the top Business schools in India.)
In her early years, Nair was among the very few women who opted for different factory roles and worked at different factories of HUL in West Bengal's Kolkata, Tamil Nadu's Ambattur and Maharashtra's Taloja. She was later elevated as HR manager of Hindustan Lever India by 2000.
There was no looking back for her after that. Year after year she was elevated to higher positions in the role of HR. By 2013, she was elevated as Unilever's senior vice president, HR, responsible for leadership and organisational development, and also took over as the global head of diversity in the same year.
Next, in 2016 she shifted to London and joined the Unilever Leadership Executive becoming the youngest CHRO.?
With this new accomplishment, Nair becomes the latest to join the list of Indians who have over the past few years taken up challenging roles at the helm of a global company including Sundar Pichai for Alphabet, Satya Nadela for Microsoft and recently, Parag?Agrawal for Twitter.?
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