Indian-origin Leena Nair has been named French fashion house Chanel’s new global Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Nair, who is a British national, was born in India’s Maharashtra. She will join Chanel by the end of January next year and will be based in London, the group said in its statement.
It added that the new appointments would ensure its “long-term success as a private company”.
After the appointment, Nair in a tweet said that she was honoured to be the global CEO of the French group. The 52-year-old would replace US businesswoman Maureen Chiquet. She was the CEO of Chanel for nine years until early 2016 and came from a fashion background.
Nair while at Unilever oversaw 150,000 people. She serves as a non-executive board member at BT and has previously served as non-executive director of the British government’s business, energy and industrial strategy department.
The appointment of Nair comes as the fashion industry is under pressure to show a more inclusive approach.
Nair is an alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur, and had joined HUL, Unilever’s Indian subsidiary in 1992 where she started out as a trainee on the factory floor, before working there for 30 years.
In the early years of her career, she began working at different factories of HUL in West Bengal’s Kolkata, Tamil Nadu’s Ambattur and Maharashtra’s Taloja. In 1996, she was appointed as Employee Relations Manager by HUL, and elevated as HR manager of Hindustan Lever India by 2000.
In 2004, Nair was appointed as general manager HR of ‘home and personal care India’ by the company and was further elevated as general manager HR in 2006.
