Fashion career profile
Leena Nair
Leena Nair is an Indian business executive and Global Chief Executive Officer of CHANEL, a position she assumed in January 2022. She holds an engineering degree in electronics and telecommunications from Walchand College of Engineering and an MBA in human resources from XLRI Jamshedpur, graduating in 1992. Nair joined Hindustan Unilever as a management trainee that year and built a 30-year career across human resources, leadership development, organisational design and business operations. She became Unilever’s Chief Human Resources Officer in 2016 and served on its leadership executive before leaving for CHANEL. Her current remit is global company leadership, not creative direction: CHANEL separately names leaders for fashion, watches, beauty and other activities. Nair’s appointment brought a senior consumer-goods and people operations executive into leadership of the privately held luxury house.
- Role
- Global Chief Executive Officer, CHANEL
- Nationality
- Indian
- Career appointments
- 1
- Fashion houses
- 1
- Education: MBA, XLRI Jamshedpur (1992); BEng, Walchand College of EngineeringXLRI records her 1992 alumni qualification; a professional biography documents her engineering degree. · XLRI Alumni; BT
- Current role: Global Chief Executive Officer, CHANELCHANEL’s May 2026 results identify Nair as Global CEO. · CHANEL
- Former executive role: Chief Human Resources Officer, Unilever (2016–2021)Her Unilever tenure preceded her appointment at CHANEL. · BT
- Career path: Hindustan Unilever management trainee → HR and leadership roles → Unilever CHRO → CHANEL Global CEOHer career moved from human-resources and organisational leadership into global luxury-company management. · BT; CHANEL
- 1992 — Joins Hindustan Unilever as a management traineeThe appointment began a three-decade career across human resources and organisational leadership.
- 2007 — Begins executive leadership at Hindustan UnileverShe served as Executive Director and Vice President HR for South Asia during this period.
- 2016 — Becomes Chief Human Resources Officer of UnileverShe joined the Unilever Leadership Executive in a global role.
- 2022 — Assumes the Global CEO role at CHANELThe appointment was announced in December 2021 and took effect in 2022.
- 2022–Present — Global Chief Executive Officer — ChanelCurrent appointment · CHANEL