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Leena Nair The first female, first Asian and youngestever CHRO of Unilever, Leena Nair is now taking her passion for people to Chanel as she leads the fashion house into 2022
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eena Nair is a woman of many firsts. As well as being the first female, first Asian and youngest ever CHRO of Unilever, she has been the first female in nearly all roles she held at the consumer goods giant over the last three decades – including the first female manager to opt for a factory stint and the first woman in Unilever’s Management Committee in 90 years. But the Indian-born British national is not done yet. After three decades with Unilever, five as CHRO, Nair has been tapped by Chanel for the French luxury group’s top job, making her the first luxury brand CEO of Indian origin and the first from an HR background. “Nair has built a global reputation for progressive and human-centred leadership, delivering significant business impact,” Chanel said in its statement announcing her hire.
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February 2022
It’s certainly true that Nair has been critical in the building of Unilever into a purpose-led, futurefit organisation, one that has become the employer of choice in more than 50 countries worldwide. As Unilever CEO Alan Jope puts it: “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.” Leena Nair – achievements as CHRO of Unilever You would think that having overall responsibility as CHRO for the company’s 150,000-strong human capital across 190 countries would have been achievement enough, but Nair’s strong leadership, HR expertise, and passion for people was instrumental in helping to drive the continued growth of both Unilever’s profits (US$50.7bn) and its purpose. Unilever is one of the world’s most socially conscious companies, scoring a best-in-class rating on S&P Global Rating’s ESG Evaluation in 2019, and crowned industry leader in personal products with continued scores of 90+ in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index since 2016. It is also one of the world’s most diverse and inclusive, and it has been Nair’s leadership on this in particular that has created such an industryleading culture.
