Manwani takes over from Banga

Harish Manwani, the newly-appointed president of Unilever (Asia and Africa), will succeed MS Banga as the non-executive chairman of Hindustan Lever.

Manwani, 51, will take charge after the forthcoming annual general meeting on June 24, a Hindustan Lever release said today.

Manwani's appointment as additional director of the Hindustan Lever board comes with Banga unwilling to seek re-election at the company's next annual general meeting, after becoming president (foods) of Unilever and a part of Unilever's new apex management committe, the Unilever Executive.

A Hindustan Lever statement said the board decided to co-opt Manwani as an additional director on April 29.

The company announced its quarterly results after the board meeting on that day but kept the decision on appointing Manwani as a closely guarded secret. In a press briefing after the results, HLL top honchos said that a decision on chairman would be taken shortly.

HLL's current national management -- the apex body responsible for performance and overall coordination of the divisional structure and corporate functions --continues to be unchanged, the statement said.

The national management consists of M K Sharma, vice- chairman; D Sundaram, director-finance and IT; Arun Adhikari, managing director-HPC and S Ravindranath, managing director-foods.

"In these last years, we have strengthened the company by focusing on our 35 FMCG power brands. We have improved quality and affordability," Banga was quoted as saying.

He also said, "We have also built our core functional capabilities and created a more agile and consumer connected company. Today we have a vibrant and energised team that is confident of growing with india."

Manwani said: "The company has a long history of success with intrinsic strengths in brands, technology, distribution and an enormous talent pool. While there may be competitive challenges, HLL is strongly placed to overcome these and will continue to play a very significant role to serve the needs of the Indian consumers."

The speculations over Manwani taking charge of HLL have been in the market ever since he visited the HLL headquarters in Mumbai and reserach centre in Bangalore in the first week of April. His collegues said that Manwani is known for rolling up his sleeves in crisis situations.

"He is street-smart, thinks outside the box and loves to take calculated risks," said one his collegues.

He was instrumental in halting the growth of arch rival P&G's juggernaut and in improving parent Unilever's market share in Latin America.

Graduating with an honours degree in statistics from Bombay University, Manwani completed his MBA in 1976. After working on several sales and marketing assignments, including a two-year secondment with Unilever Export in the UK, He was also chairman of the wholly owned subsidiary, Lakme Lever and director of the joint venture, Kimberly Clark Lever.

Manwani joined Unilever in 1976 in India and worked in several sales and marketing positions, before joining the HLL board in 1995 as director of personal products business.

He was also personal products category leader for the Central Asia and Middle East (CAME) business group and a member of the international category boards for oral, skin care and hair categories.

In 2000, he moved to the UK as senior vice-president for the hair care and oral care categories. He was appointed president, home & personal care Latin America in 2001. In 2004, Manwani was appointed president, home and personal care North America.