What sets Leena Nair apart from other India-born achievers?

“Being the first woman in every single job I have done means, I get to see just what it means to be in a job that feels built for someone else. I always say, ‘We’re all in the same storm, we’re not in the same boat’”

This is what Unilever’s chief human resources officer or CHRO Leena Nair said in an interview to Harper’s Bazaar last month. It was before she was announced the head of Chanel.

This response of hers fits perfectly in her situation today. The 52-year-old was on Tuesday appointed the new global CEO of French fashion house Chanel. She will be based in London for her new role. As an India-born woman of colour, Nair’s appointment at the helm of Chanel is certainly an outlier. 

Chanel has for long been a tightly-controlled family fashion house. More importantly, unlike other India-born CEOs of global companies --- most recently Parag Agrawal who took charge of Twitter earlier this month --- Nair’s educational and professional credentials are for the most part, ‘Made in India’. 

She completed her schooling in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur before earning a degree in electronics engineering from Walchand College of Engineering in Maharashtra’s Sangli.

Nair went on to complete her MBA from the Xavier School of Management in Jamshedpur where she was a gold medallist. She joined Hindustan Unilever in 1992 as a management trainee. 

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Nair was among the few women employees to opt for a factory role. It took her to different factories of HUL in Kolkata, Tamil Nadu’s Ambattur and Maharashtra’s Taloja. 

In her 30 years at HUL, she rose through the ranks and held posts such as the employee relations manager, HR manager and executive director HR. 

After three years as head of leadership and organisational development in London, she was appointed as chief human resources officer or CHRO in 2016, with responsibility for the company’s 1,50,000 people across more than 100 countries globally. Nair was also made a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive.

She became the first woman, first Asian and youngest ever CHRO at Unilever and member of the Unilever Leadership Executive. At HUL, over a period of 10 years starting 2010, she helped the company achieve a 50/50 gender balance across global leadership. 

Her agenda at HUL also included a commitment to pay the living wage across its whole supply chain. After such a distinguished stint, Nair will step down as Unilever’s CHRO next month to join Chanel. 

“I would like to thank Leena for her outstanding contribution over the last 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 also got another compliment from former PepsiCo chairman Indra Nooyi. Nooyi, a trailblazer and person of colour to helm the food and beverage giant for 12 years as the CEO until 2008, is a mentor to Nair. She called Nair a “kickass executive”. Surely, Chanel agrees with Indra Nooyi. 

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