Leena Nair (pictured), a veteran of consumer goods company Unilever, has been appointed the new global CEO of Chanel.
She will be based in London and begin her new role in January.
Nair worked at Unilever for 30 years, beginning as a management trainee in India in 1992. She most recently served as its chief human resources officer and a member of its executive committee. In that role, she oversaw 150,000 employees across more than 100 countries globally.
She replaces Alain Wertheimer, who will become Chanel’s global executive chairman and owns the company with his brother Gerald. Alain first took over the company in 1974, when he was in his twenties. He relinquished the role in the 1990s but then returned to it in 2016.
Alain Wertheimer is the grandson of Pierre Wertheimer, who with Coco Chanel cofounded the original Chanel. The Wertheimer family has owned the company since 1954.
In a LinkedIn post, Nair said that Unilever has “given me so many opportunities to learn, grow and contribute to a truly purpose-driven organization.”
She called Chanel a “an iconic and admired company…that believes in the freedom of creation, in cultivating human potential and in acting to have a positive impact in the world.”
(Photo courtesy of Chanel)
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