AFTER a distinguished 37-year career with Unilever, Nitin Paranjpe is set to leave the British consumer goods giant later this year. Paranjpe has been serving as the chief people and transformation officer from January 2022, responsible for leading both human resources and the implementation of Unilever’s new Compass Organisation globally. He leaves the firm after successfully orchestrating the once-in-a-decade, end-to-end transformation, which has seen the maker of Dove soap and Magnum ice-cream – among a whole multitude of other different products – organising its business into five new divisions – beauty and wellbeing, personal care, home care, nutrition, and ice cream. While taking up the role, he commented that his purpose was “to demonstrate that exceptional outcomes can be delivered with good old values of dignity, respect, and fairness; and that purposeful business is wholly compatible with profitable business”. This has been his personal purpose all along, and it has shaped the purpose and strategy of Unilever, particularly during his significant tenure as a member of Unilever’s Leadership Executive since October 2013.

As president of the company’s home care and nutrition and ice-cream divisions, and chief operating officer since 2019, he has over seen many Unilever brands turning into the company’s own ‘Sustainable Living Brands’ – those taking action to support positive change for people and the planet – by identifying and activating their purpose. As chief operating officer, he has been re sponsible for delivering in-year results – the all-important profit and loss column of the company’s accounts across the globe. And his elevation to lead the business transformation once again showed the company’s trust in his abilities to deliver results. Paranjpe has, in fact, been the ideal person at Unilever to lead this transformation, as he has seen up close a previous re-organisation two decades ago.

In 2000,