When Chanel boss Leena Nair got a ‘kick in the pants’ from mentor Indra Nooyi

Leena Nair, Chanel’s new global CEO is the second woman with Indian roots to become a global CEO after former PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi. The French fashion house on Tuesday announced Nair’s appointment, making her Chanel’s first Indian-origin boss.

In her previous role, Leena Nair, 52, was Unilever’s first woman, first Asian and youngest Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO).

She considers Nooyi her friend and mentor.

“I'm so proud to call her a mentor and friend,” Nair had said in October, during an interaction between the two corporate leaders as they discussed Nooyi’s memoir.

“All of you know me as pretty confident. But let me tell you, there have been a couple of times I’ve asked questions to Indra… ‘am I good enough or why me’. She has given me the proverbial kick in the pants to go and get over myself and get back my confidence and given me the shake-up that all of us need from time to time,” Nair said.

Indra Nooyi, 66, became the rare woman and person of colour to reach the highest levels of corporate power when she became the CEO of PepsiCo in 2006. She worked at the food and beverage giant for 24 years, 12 of them as CEO, before stepping down in 2018.

During her interaction with Nair, Nooyi had said, “She (Leena Nair) is what I call a kickass executive. She is fantastic.”

Nair recalled how Nooyi instantly agreed to mentor her. “I remember, I reached out to you and said, Indra, will you be my mentor? And you said yes. I was so shocked for a couple of days, saying she really said yes,” the Chanel boss said.

With her appointment at Chanel, Nair joins the ranks of Indian-origin executives such as Parag Agrawal, Sundar Pichai and Sadya Nadella, helming global companies.

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

Nair joined Hindustan Unilever in 1992 after graduating from one of the top B-schools India - the Xavier School of Management - with a gold medal.

Leena Nair completed her schooling in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur before she earned a degree in electronics engineering from Walchand College of Engineering in Maharashtra’s Sangli.

In the early years of her career, she began working at different factories of Hindustan Unilever (HUL) in West Bengal capital 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.