From Kolhapur to Top Boss at Chanel: Indian-Born Leena Nair's Career Graph

The 52-year-old Leena Nair is an Indian-born British national who started her career at Unilever.

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam, Deepthi Ramdas

"The first female, first Asian, youngest-ever CHRO of Unilever," reads 52-year-old Indian-born British national Leena Nair's LinkedIn profile.

On 14 December, Nair made history when she was named the Global Chief Executive Officer for French luxury brand Chanel. With this, Nair joins the long list of Indian-origin executives who have been appointed at the helm of global companies.

Valued at $10-billion, Chanel competes with global luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci, L'Oreal, among others.

She has been given the charge of ensuring Chanel's "long term success as a private company," the company said in a statement, recognising Nair as a "visionary leader whose ability to champion a long-term, purpose-driven agenda is matched with a consistently strong record of business outcomes."

From Kolhapur to London

Born in 1969 in Maharashtra's Kolhapur, Nair did her initial schooling at Holy Cross Convent School in the city.

She pursued her Engineering degree, specialising in Electronics and Telecommunications, from Walchand College in Sangli. She later graduated with a Gold Medal from XLRI, Jamshedpur in 1992 where she pursued MBA in Human Resources.

She started her career with Unilever as a Management Trainee and spent almost 30 years in the company – both progressing and assuming various roles.

"One of the best pieces of advice I ever had was before my career even began, from my college professor who sat me down and said, 'You know what, you’re going to make a pretty lousy engineer. But I think you have a flair for management. You like being with people.'"⠀

Leena Nair on Instagram

According to media reports, she was one of the rare female employees who opted for a factory role in the company. She has worked in HUL's factories in West Bengal's Kolkata, Tamil Nadu's Ambattur and Maharashtra's Taloja.

In June 2007, she assumed the role of Executive Director of Unilever South Asia Leadership team – becoming the first woman to be appointed to the position.

Five years later, she took over as Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion. In March 2016, she became the first woman to be appointed the Chief Human Resources Officer.

Unilever CEO Alan Jope said he was thankful to her for the outstanding contribution to the company over the past three decades.

"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."

Alan Jope

Nooyi, a Mentor to Nair

In an Instagram post, Nair called former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi a friend and a mentor.

In October, the duo addressed a World Mental Health Day at Unilever, where they spoke about the challenges faced by women in building their careers.

Incidentally, Nair became the second woman after Nooyi to take over as the CEO of a global brand.

Named as one of Fortune India's 'Most Powerful Women' in 2021, Nair will formally assume her new role in January 2022.