A LONG-SERVING Unilever finance executive stepped into one of the most powerful roles in global consumer goods when he became the company’s permanent chief financial officer in September 2025, following six months as acting CFO.
During that period, Srinivas Phatak impressed the board sufficiently that, even after a thorough search both inside and outside the company, he emerged as the unanimous choice for the position.
“Srinivas has been a great partner over the last six months as acting CFO and over many years as part of the Unilever leadership team,” Unilever chief executive Fernando Fernandez said. “His leadership and constructive challenge will be very valuable in driving consistent volume growth, margin expansion, and advancing our growth story.”
His appointment comes at a pivotal moment for the group, which is undergoing a turnaround to boost its performance. Unilever completed the demerger of its ice cream business, now known as The Magnum Ice Cream Company, in December 2025, while chief executive Fernando Fernandez, Phatak’s predecessor as CFO, sharpens the company’s focus on the US and India markets and seeks to drive premium growth through its leading brands.
Earlier this year, at the dbAccess Global Consumer Conference in Paris, Phatak met investors and outlined the company’s direction. He described Unilever’s ambition to become “a world-class marketing and sales execution machine”, pointing to the progress made over the previous 18 months and the growing impact of technology-enabled initiatives across the value chain.
A qualified chartered accountant and cost accountant, Phatak has spent more than 25 years at Unilever, gaining experience across almost every part of the company’s business and corporate finance operations. Along the way he has played a central role in several enterprise-wide initiatives, including productivity programmes, integrated operations and technology transformation, giving him a deep understanding of how the group functions across its global network.
One of his most prominent earlier roles was as chief financial officer of Hindustan Unilever and vice-president of finance for South Asia between 2017 and mid-2021. During that period the India business delivered strong results, gaining corporate market share, growing by more than 7 per cent, achieving over 300 basis points of margin expansion and doubling its market capitalisation under his financial leadership.
Phatak’s rise through the company has been steady and methodical. After joining Unilever in the late 1990s, he held a range of finance and commercial roles in India before moving into increasingly senior international positions. In 2014 he became vice-president of finance for the supply chain in the Americas, followed by vice-president of finance for the deodorants category. He later led financial shared services before returning to India to take up the CFO role at Hindustan Unilever.
From 2021 his focus shifted to group-level responsibilities. He became executive vice-president for risk management and controls, and in 2022 was promoted to deputy CFO and controller, overseeing performance and financial stewardship across the entire Unilever group.
