Hooray!! Hindustan Unilever is going to be headed by a woman: Ambi Parameswaran

Marketing veteran Ambi Parameswaran has penned a candid note on the stepping down of Rohit Jawa as CEO & MD of Hindustan Unilever

by e4m Staff
Published: Jul 12, 2025 10:16 AM | 2 min read

Marketing veteran Ambi Parameswaran has penned a candid note on the stepping down of Rohit Jawa as CEO & MD of Hindustan Unilever, even as he cheers the landmark appointment of Priya Nair as the first woman to head the FMCG giant in its 90+ year history.

“Hooray!! Hindustan Unilever is going to be headed by a woman, for the first time in its 90+ year history. This is news that deserves to be celebrated. And I wish Priya Nair all the very best,” Parameswaran wrote in a LinkedIn post.

“HLL or HUL is known for having a great bench of talented leaders who are ready to take over senior roles. The company has been a hashtag#CEOFactory, also the name of the best seller penned by Sudhir Sitapathi. HUL has supplied CEOs for not just many Indian companies but also to the Unilever system worldwide. But I am not aware of the company ever having changed its Indian CEO within just two years. I wonder what may have happened. The global CEO has changed and that may have triggered this move. But in the past Indian operations have been quite insulated from global happenings.

“Many questions are popping up but that said, I am not for CEO Merry-Go-Rounds in any company let alone an institution like HUL. Rohit deserved a longer innings. And I hope Priya has a long and successful tenure as the first woman CEO of arguably India’s most respected FMCG major,” he shared.