Industrialist Anand Mahindra congratulated Leena Nair who has been appointed as the global CEO of Chanel. She joins the league of other Indian-origin executives like Sundar Pichai, Parag Agrawal and Satya Nadella who are at the helm of top global companies.
Nair, 52, is the second woman of Indian-origin to be a global CEO after former PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi.
“So it’s not just Silicon Valley but also Fashion Alley that’s catching the ‘good virus’ of Indian CEOs. Bravo Leena! Keep making us proud,” Mahindra tweeted on Friday.
When Parag Agrawal was appointed as the CEO of Twitter last month, the Mahindra group chief had praised Indian-origin persons leading top tech companies in the world, terming it the “Indian CEO virus”.
“This is one pandemic that we are happy & proud to say originated in India. It’s the Indian CEO Virus… No vaccine against it (sic),” Anand Mahindra, 66, had tweeted.
A British national, born in India, Leena Nair is a rare outsider at the helm of Chanel, the tightly controlled French family fashion house, known for its tweed suits, quilted handbags and No. 5 perfume.
She completed her schooling in 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 was appointed as Employee Relations Manager by HUL, and elevated as HR manager of Hindustan Lever India by 2000.
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