Who is Leena Nair, the new Chanel boss?

Leena Nair, a top Unilever executive, was on December 14 announced as the new global chief executive of French luxury group Chanel.

In a statement, Chanel said Nair would join the group in January, adding that the recent appointments would ensure its "long-term success as a private company."

With this appointment, Nair becomes the latest to join the list of Indians who have over the past few years taken up challenging roles at the helm of a global company.

Read also: What Leena Nair said after becoming Chanel's first Indian-origin global CEO

Who is Leena Nair, the new Chanel boss?

Nair, 52, holds the distinction of being "the first female, first Asian, youngest ever" chief human resources officer (CHRO) of Unilever. She is also a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive (ULE).

Nair's professional career currently spans for around 30 years. She had joined the Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) as a management trainee, back in 1992, after obtaining a gold medal from the Xavier School of Management - one of the top B-schools of India.

She was among the rare female employees at the time who opted for factory roles, and was appointed as the factory personnel manager of Lipton (India) Ltd in 1993.

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 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.

A year later, she assumed the charge of executive director HR of HUL, and in 2013, she was elevated as Unilever's senior vice president, HR, responsible for leadership and organisational development, and also took over as the the global head of diversity in the same year.

Nair joined the Unilever Leadership Executive, based in London, in 2016 and became the youngest, first woman and first Asian to be elevated as the CHRO.

On her being announced as the new global chief executive of Chanel, Unilever CEO Alan Jope said he was thankful to her for the outstanding contribution to the company over the past 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 has played a critical role in building our purpose-led, future-fit organisation, which is now the employer of choice in over 50 countries globally," Jope said.