French luxury group Chanel has appointed Unilever's Leena Nair as its new Global Chief Executive. Nair, who hails from Kolhapur, currently serves as Unilever's chief of human resources and a member of its executive committee.
Nair joined Unilever in 1992 as a management trainee at Hindustan Lever and worked her way up to becoming the parent company's global HR Officer.
After working her way through the ranks at Unilever, Nair shifted base to London to serve as the company's global senior vice-president for leadership and organisation development before being promoted to the role of global HRO.
Nair, who graduated with a gold medal from XLRI, Jamshedpur, was the first female, first Asian and the youngest ever HRO of Unilever.
Apart from being a member of Unilever's executive committee, Nair also serves as a non-executive director on the board of the BT Group as well as a trustee of the Leverhulme Trust.