Hindustan Unilever Ltd has named Rohit Jawa as the new managing director and chief executive of the consumer goods major, succeeding Sanjiv Mehta, who is retiring after a decade. Jawa’s term will begin on June 27.
Mehta, who will step down on June 26, will also relinquish all positions at parent Unilever, where he was president of South Asia and a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive.
Jawa will join HUL as Designate CEO and Whole-time Director with effect from 1 April 2023. For exchanges on Friday.
The 56-year-old is an MBA in Marketing from Jawa Faculty of Management Studies and an alumnus of St Stephen’s College, Delhi. He is currently Head of Transformation at London-based Unilever, where he has been responsible for Unilever’s transformation since January last year.
He directly joined HUL in 1988 as a management trainee in Mumbai, moving on to work in regions such as India, South East Asia and North Asia. The success of Jawa echoes the success of several HUL executives who moved to do business in far-flung areas globally for Unilever.
According to the company, Jawa played a key role as executive vice president for North Asia and president of Unilever China. He led a turnaround that resulted in Unilever China emerging as the third largest business in Unilever’s global portfolio. Additionally, he led Unilever Philippines as chairman, making it one of the top 10 markets for the company globally. “Java’s ability to integrate the strengths of traditional markets with digital technologies and future-friendly business models makes him well-positioned to lead HUL into its next growth phase,” the company said.
In FY22, HUL reported sales of 50,336 crores. India is Unilever’s largest market globally by volume and second largest by value.
Mehta, 62, took over as MD & CEO of HUL in October 2013 and has led the business through sustained growth. “During his tenure, business surpassed 50,000 crore turnover mark, and the company’s market capitalization grew more than fourfold from $17 billion to $75 billion, making HUL one of India’s most valuable businesses.
Mehta also led the acquisition of brands such as Horlicks from GSK Consumer Healthcare, besides regional hair-care brand Indulekha, to strengthen the company’s presence in the nutrition and personal care market. “He has led the business into future growth segments with several strategic mergers and acquisitions, such as the merger of GSK Consumer Healthcare with HUL, one of the largest mergers in the history of FMCG in the country,” the company said. Mehta also did many leadership roles. Transformational business programs to make business more consumer-centric, agile and flexible. He supported the ‘Reimagine HUL’ agenda by leveraging data and designing a business model to redefine how the company engages with consumers. Mehta spent more than three decades at the consumer goods major, of which 21 years were as CEO across Unilever’s businesses in 25 countries.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve businesses in South Asia including Hindustan Unilever as CEO/Executive Chairman/Chairman for the past 10 years. This has been one of the longest tenures in the illustrious history of Hindustan Unilever. I am also privileged to be the first current CEO of HUL to join Unilever’s Executive Board (Unilever Leadership Executive),” Mehta said in a post on LinkedIn on Friday.
On Friday, the company also announced the appointment of Ranjay Gulati as an independent director of the company for five years from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2028. Gulati is a professor at Harvard Business School. He is an expert in organizational development and, until recently, chaired the Advanced Management Program, the school’s flagship senior leader executive program.
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