TRAILBLAZER
Unilever
| For a more equitable and inclusive world
Under her tenure as CHRO , Unilever achieved a 50 / 50 gender balance across global leadership with Nair leading a pioneering agenda with bold new social commitments , including recent pledges to pay the living wage across its entire supply chain by 2030 , and equip 10 million young people with essential skills by 2030 .
She created numerous projects , many of which were pioneering the future of global work . She spearheaded the Unilever ‘ discover your purpose ’ workshops , catering to 6,000 employees to date ; pioneered the four-day week pilot programme currently being explored in New Zealand ; instigated the U-Work program , which joins the flexibility of contact work with the security and benefits of an in-house role ; and initiated U-Renew , a paid learning sabbatical programme to help workers upskill , currently under test .
Throughout her three-decadelong career at Unilever , Nair innovated in the delivery of culturerich programmes , having previously initiated as Unilever ’ s VP of HR for South Asia the Career by Choice programme , to help women who ’ d fallen off the career ladder re-join the workforce .
Leena Nair - how did she get there ? It was almost exactly 30 years ago , in February 1992 , when Nair arrived at the doors of Unilever . After securing an MBA from India ’ s oldest business school ( XLRI ), she secured a graduate management trainee role at Unilever in Hindustan , where
16 February 2022