HUL announces key management changes

Arun Neelakantan has been named as chief digital officer, while Harman Dhillon and Kartik Chandrasekhar have been appointed as executive directors for beauty & wellbeing and personal care, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever has announced key changes and appointments to its management committee (MC), deepening the focus in the Beauty and Personal Care (BPC) division and reinforcing the digital agenda. The Beauty and Personal Care division will transition into dedicated Beauty & Wellbeing (B&W) and Personal Care (PC) businesses. This change will be effective April 1, 2024.

Madhusudhan Rao, executive director, B&W and PC has decided to retire from the Company. Harman Dhillon will join the HUL MC as executive director, beauty & wellbeing. Kartik Chandrasekhar will join the MC as executive director, personal care. Harman and Kartik will assume their new offices from April 1st, 2024.

To unlock new growth opportunities by leveraging the digital ecosystem in India, Arun Neelakantan will join the HUL MC as chief digital officer. Arun’s appointment will be effective January 1st, 2024.

Harman, currently India skin care head, joined HUL in 2006, and over the last 17 years, she has built deep expertise in Beauty & Wellbeing. Between 2015-16, Harman led the TRESemmé business as Global Brand Director, based out of London. She launched two iconic haircare brands, Dove Hair and TRESemmé, in India. Her deep understanding of the consumer and beauty categories resulted in several path-breaking marketing campaigns such as the Dove ‘Stop the Beauty Test’ and Clinic Plus ‘Meri Beti Strong’. In recent years, she led a transformation of the Skin Care business, with a comprehensive revamp of brands like Lakmé.

Kartik is currently the global vice president and head of oral care & skin cleansing for D&E markets. Kartik joined HUL as a management trainee in 1998, and since then, he has worked across Unilever businesses in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. In his career spanning more than 25 years, Kartik has worked extensively in Marketing across categories. In his previous role as the Global Vice President for Lifebuoy, he led the brand to become the world’s no 1 hygiene brand and carried out one of the largest skin cleansing market development activities with the Lifebuoy handwashing campaign. In his current role, he has significantly strengthened the competitiveness of Oral Care globally in Unilever.