Sanjiv Mehta, the erstwhile chairman and managing director of Unilever, has been elevated to the position of President of Unilever South Asia. The move will be effective from 1 May 2019. While working on his new role, Mr. Mehta will also be working as the chairman and managing director. Another perk of his new role is the inclusion of Unilever Leadership Executives (ULE).
According to Alan Jope, this move will bring a positive change to the company. He said “Sanjiv has been one of our most impressive General Managers with a consistent track record of growth and execution in high growth and emerging markets,” He also elaborated on this by saying that Sanjiv Mehta has been highly instrumental in unlocking South Asian markets and ensuring a top and bottom line penetration of the market. Finally, he also said “I look forward welcoming Sanjiv onto ULE where he will add invaluable insights and leadership,”
While speaking to a different channel, Alan Jope said “Today’s increasingly fragmented consumer, channel and media environment requires us to operate with more speed and agility than ever before. With his deep knowledge and experience of our markets, Nitin is ideally placed to work with me and the Unilever Leadership Executive to drive our performance and help deliver our growth ambitions,”
Sandip Ghosh, who was the former MD of Nepal Lever, which is a vertical of Unilever, also spoke about Sanjiv Mehta’s new promotion. He said “He has been a very mature professional. I remember there was a massive protest in Kerala against HUL products and he happened to be working there. The way he handled the situation showed his ability to be level-headed during a crisis. When it comes to working with people, he is not someone who would be brash,” This shows that most people familiar with Unilever and Mr. Mehta have the utmost confidence in his abilities to lead the company.
This is not the only change in leadership that Unilever is currently making. They recently appointed Nitin Paranjpe as the COO. Prior to this, Nitin Paranjpe was the President of Food and Refreshment at the company. His new role adds the responsibility of all the go-to-market organizations that fall under Unilever, and as well as coordinating and driving in-year performance all over India, across all their products. These performances will be measured based on the company’s regional strategies that have been employed for different areas of the country.
Additionally, Hanneke Faber has been appointed as the new President of Food and Beverages. Meanwhile, the President of Homecare, Kees Kruythoff has left Unilever after 27 years of working with the company, in order to pursue external opportunities. His role will be taken over by Peter Kulve.
