FMCG major, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has reportedly narrowed down a list of possible chief executive officer candidates to succeed Sanjiv Mehta when he steps down from the position of CEO and Managing Director (MD). Since 2013, he has been the MD and CEO of the company.
Rohit Jawa and Priya Nair are among the front-runners for the corner office. Jawa reportedly viewed as a strong candidate, is currently Unilever’s Chief of Transformation. On the other hand, Nair is the parent company’s Global Chief Marketing Officer for the beauty and wellbeing sector. If selected for the position, 50-year-old Nair would become HUL's first female CEO, The Economic Times reported citing executives familiar with the situation.
Both of them have completed Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School.
At HUL, the CEO succession has reportedly been a two-horse contest. In order to prepare internal candidates for the post, several challenging roles with profit and loss accountability and worldwide roles are assigned to them.
"Jawa is working closely with Nitin Paranjpe, who took on a new role as chief transformation officer and chief people officer, leading the business transformation, and heading the HR function at Unilever," The Economic Times quoted an executive, as saying.
Jawa began working for HUL in 1988 as a management trainee and has subsequently held executive positions in Unilever's sales, marketing, transformation, and general management departments. The 57-year-old Unilever’s Chief of Transformation is a marketing MBA graduate from the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) in Delhi.
He was executive vice president for North Asia and chairman of Unilever China before accepting the current role at the parent company. He has extensive experience in the personal care, home care, and food industries and has worked in China, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
Nair also joined HUL as a management trainee in the consumer insights unit. She is an MBA from the Pune-based Symbiosis Institute of Business Management's 1995 class. Over the past ten years at HUL, she oversaw home, beauty, and personal care portfolios before going to the parent business.
She led the launch of Kan Khajura Tesan, HUL's rural mobile marketing programme. It won three Gold Lion prizes at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in the year 2014.
