M.S Banga, Chairman, Hindustan Lever

Date of birth: October 31, 1954

Educational qualifications:

B.E Mechanical from IIT Delhi in 1975.

MBA from IIM Ahmedabad 


Career:

Banga was appointed the Chairman of Hindustan Lever in May 2002.

Mr. Banga joined Hindustan Lever as a Management Trainee in 1977. Upto 1992, he worked in a variety of Sales & Marketing assignments in the Detergents and Personal Care Categories in India, including a spell with Lever Brothers, UK. From 1993 to 1995, he was Head of HLL's Personal Products business.

Between August 1995 and end 1998, he was Executive Director and Head of the Soaps & Detergents business - HLL's largest business division, and also Unilever's single largest Soaps & Detergents business by volume (1.1 million tonnes) with sales of about Rs. 4000 crores, 12000 employees and 16 factories.

In December 1998, he moved to the Unilever Head Office in London as Senior Vice President responsible for the Hair & Oral Care Categories with a total sales value of £ 2.5 billion.

In addition, he led the company's initiative into mass market foods. A new business model was created which won Unilever's Foods Innovation Award in 1998.

He was also the Category Leader for the Detergents business for Unilever's Central Asia & Middle East Business Group.

Current responsibilities & achievements:

HLL has been well known as a company which nurtures talent. He has taken this to new heights. Since taking over as Chairman, he has made several changes to the organisation's structure to provide greater empowerment and make jobs richer, and to push decision-making deeper into the organisation. Mr. Banga lives by the values he is driving in HLL - Courage, Truth, Action and Caring.

He is on the Boards and Managing Committees of many Trade and non-Trade Institutions, including the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Mr. Banga is an Independent Director on the Board of Maruti Udyog. He is also a member of the India Aids Initiative Programme Board.