South Asian woman appointed as CEO of Chanel

Leena Nair, born in Maharashtra, India is the first south Asian women to be appointed as the CEO of the global fashion brand started by Coco Chanel in Paris in the 1930’s. The announcement comes as Chanel has been without a global CEO for more than five years, when after its previous CEO Maureen Chiquet left and Chanel co-owner Alain Wertheimer took the role on an interim basis.

The appointment is also a surprise given that Leena does not have a background in fashion. Yet, she has proven her mettle having been the first female, first Asian, youngest ever Chief Human Resource Officer of Unilever and member of the Unilever Leadership Executive which is responsible for delivering Unilever's business & financial performance. She has worked at Unilever for the past 30 years and started as a trainee on the factory floor.

During her time there, she championed and achieved gender parity across global management and committed to paying the living wage across the supply chain. Whilst at Chanel, which she will officially join in January of next year, Leena will be based in London. She has previously a non-executive board member of the British government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2018 to 2020, and the Chair of the Nominations and Governance Committee and currently serves as a non-executive board member at BT.

Leena has also won a number of awards through her career so far including being recognised by the Queen as one of the accomplished Indian Business Leaders in the UK.