Madhusudhan Rao & Deepak Subramanian join HUL’s Management Committee

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) has announced two key appointments to its Management Committee. Madhusudhan Rao will be appointed as Executive Director, Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care, HUL, and Deepak Subramanian, will be appointed as Executive Director, Home Care, HUL. Rao takes over from Priya Nair, who will move into her new global role as Beauty & Wellbeing, Chief Marketing Officer. Subramanian will take over from Prabha Narasimhan, who has decided to leave the company to pursue an external opportunity.

Rao is currently Executive Vice President – Home and Hygiene, Unilever. He joined HUL in 1991. In his 30+ years in the company, he demonstrated a strong performance track record in Marketing, Customer Development and Brand Development roles across geographies. In his current role, Rao helped shape the Home & Hygiene category as a successful business with a distinctive high-performance culture.

Subramanian, currently Vice President - Home Care, South-East Asia/ ANZ (SEAA) & Global Head, Fabric Enhancers, joined HUL in 1995 as a management trainee. From being the Marketing Manager for Kissan in India and the Regional Brand Director for Vitality Foods, Subramanian moved on to become the Vice President for Foods & Refreshment for Central & Eastern Europe. In his current role leading Home Care for SEAA, he significantly improved the profitability of the business, whilst strengthening top-line growth. In his global role, Subramanian helped transform the Fabric Enhancers category by driving innovations and re-positioning the brands to have more social impact.

Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, HUL, commented, “I am delighted to welcome Madhusudhan and Deepak to the HUL Management Committee. Madhusudhan has a successful track record in a variety of operational and strategic roles. He has brought in a strong performance edge in his teams and has pioneered several innovations that uphold Unilever’s high science and technology credentials. Deepak has championed innovation and sustainable strategies to significantly improve brand equity and deliver growth. He has demonstrated superior business acumen in building new categories, primarily in start-up business verticals. I am certain that they will take the business to the next level of performance.”

Talking about Priya Nair’s contribution to the business, Mehta said, “She has been an active champion for building future skills and experimentation, and has led several path-breaking marketing initiatives such as the Kan Khajura Tesan. Under her leadership, the business witnessed high growth in key categories driven by consumer centric innovations and award-winning, purpose-driven communication.”

“Prabha led Home Care to deliver a strong performance across South Asia over the last two years. She has contributed immensely towards embedding the Clean Future agenda into the Home Care product development strategy,” he added about Prabha Narasimhan, thanking both for their immense contribution.

“It brings me immense joy and pride to see our leaders move on to helm businesses both in Unilever globally, and in India Inc. I wish Priya all the success in her new global role and Prabha the very best for the new phase of her career,” Mehta added.