Priya Nair to be the first female CEO in Hindustan Unilever, which has a 92-year history.
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), India, the largest company in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), has made the historic decision of appointing Priya Nair as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director (MD). She will replace Rohit Jawa on August 1st, 2025, while he will also leave the post on July 31st, 2025. This is a really huge milestone since it is the first time in the 92 years of the existence of the company (HUL) that a woman takes over its helm in the form of Priya Nair.
Priya Nair, a well-experienced person with over 28 years of experience at HUL and its parent company Unilever, is the present President of Beauty & Wellbeing at Unilever. She has a gigantic portfolio of 13 billion euros, which covers famous brands such as Dove, Sunsilk, and Vaseline. Her appointment is when the HUL is operating in a tough market with a weak urban market, an increasing rural market, and increased competition among local and global competitors.
When Nair joined HUL as a management trainee in the year 1995, her career with the company took off. Through the years, she scaled up the ladder, acquiring dominant roles in sales and marketing in home care products, beauty, and personal care products. She began her career as a manager of consumer insights and brand management with some of the iconic brands, including Dove, Rin, Comfort, etc. She has worked as the Executive Director of Home Care since 2014 and helped turn the category around significantly. Subsequently, between 2020 and 2022, she led the Beauty & Personal Care business in South Asia and made brands such as Lux and Ponds grow. In 2022 she relocated to London as Global Chief Marketing Officer of Beauty & Wellbeing at Unilever, and in 2023 she was also promoted to President of the division.
Her management is one that has been accredited as being consumer-oriented as well as innovative. Among her most remarkable works was the mobile marketing campaign implemented under the brand name of Kan Khajura Tesan, which earned three Gold Lions at Cannes of 2014 with its innovative ways of reaching out to a rural customer. Nair has been a leading figure because she is global and has conquered the Indian market through her expertise.
HUL Chairman Nitin Paranjpe heaped praise on Nair with regard to her appointment, saying, Priya has had an excellent career with HUL and Unilever. The fact that she is very familiar with the Indian market and the successful performance she had in the past make her an ideal person to steer HUL in its next stage of development. He also thanked the retiring CEO Rohit Jawa, who had contributed to the company in a hard economic run of markets and had consolidated its position through the strategy of Aspire, which was based on portfolio transformation and market leadership.
The newly announced CEO, Rohit Jawa, who succeeded in becoming a leader in 2023, is going to leave his position after the two years of work to pursue new personal and professional prospects. In his era, HUL recorded a volume-driven growth amid hitches such as dull demand in the urban areas and a weak rebound of discretionary spending. During his 37-year tenure with Unilever, Jawa had served as a head in China and the Philippines, where he had brought in big success.
Priya Nair is a Malayalee born in Kolhapur but grew up in Mumbai. She has a B.Com degree and an MBA degree in marketing education. She attended another course, an executive leadership degree program at the Harvard Business School. Nair is now married to businessman Manmohan and has a 13-year-old daughter called Mehak, and she currently lives in London.
It is a proud moment for women in corporate India because, while HUL is the beneficiary of Nair's appointment, several others are better off than before. She is a part of the exclusive club of HUL female executives, which includes Prabha Narasimhan and global CEO of Chanel Leena Nair. Since Nair is assuming the helm of HUL, she will probably consider growth in the digital-first marketplace, competition, and the needs of eco-consumers.
Having a keen understanding of the consumer market and an already tested leadership quality, Priya Nair will also usher HUL into a new phase of innovation and success; she is a historical figure, as she will become the first woman to be the head of the FMCG giant.
