'Vindi' Banga bids adieu to Unilever

Manvinder Singh Banga, president (global foods, home & personal care) at Unilever Plc, has called it a day after 33 years with the FMCG major. He will leave by the end of May. It is unclear, however, where the London-based executive is headed to.

Better known as Vindi, Banga is also member of the company's executive board called Unilever Executive. He will be replaced by Michael B Polk, who is currently president (Americas) at Unilever, according to a press statement.

Polk, in turn, will be replaced by Dave Lewis, who is currently vice-president of Unilever, the UK and Ireland. He will join the Unilever Executive.

Banga, an IIT-IIM alumnus, began his innings with the FMCG company in India. He became chairman & managing director of Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL), as it was called, in 2000, subsequently moving to Singapore in 2004 as president, home & personal care, Asia. He joined the Unilever Executive in 2005 as president (foods), creating the foods category organisation.

In 2008, he was given additional charge of the home & personal care categories, which allowed him to create a single Unilever global foods, home & personal care category organisation. This organisation is responsible for innovation and marketing mix development across brands.

In India, too, Banga did something similar during his tenure as chairman and managing director. He implemented the Unilever Power Brand strategy, attempting to trim the Indian subsidiary's vast portfolio of brands, focusing instead on a few high performers. This strategy met with mixed success.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment of my time at Unilever, especially the last few years, during which we have transformed the company. Our global category organisation is a real powerhouse that combines global brand and technology scale with local knowledge and execution," Banga said about his tenure with Unilever in a written statement.

Paul Polman, chief executive officer, Unilever, said, "Vindi is a great leader and has had a very successful career with the company. He was responsible for a significant improvement in our innovation results, delivering bigger ideas with global scale. He will be greatly missed."