Baillie: Ready to roll

Mumbai, Dec. 16: Hindustan Lever has appointed Douglas Baillie as the chief executive officer and managing director.

Zimbabwe-born Baillie is the group vice-president and head of Unilever AMET (Africa, Middle East and Turkey).

This is the first time in five decades that an expat has been chosen for the top job at HLL. His appointment will be effective from March 1.

Arun Adhikari, managing director (home and personal care), is moving to Japan as chairman of Unilever, Japan.

HLL chairman Harish Manwani will continue to lead the company?s board and provide strategic direction and guidance to the business in India.

M.K. Sharma will continue in his current position as vice-chairman and D. Sundaram as director, finance and information technology. Similarly, S. Ravindranath will remain managing director of foods.

With Baillie coming in, the national management structure, responsible for HLL?s performance, results and overall coordination of the divisional structure and corporate functions, will be extended to a broader management committee. This will headed by Baillie himself.

Details of the committee, which will assist the chief executive in decision making, will be announced by the end of next month. However, there are indications the new committee may include some additional appointments (the current national management structure consists of four members).

The committee will be a ?combination of continuity and newness?, Manwani said. There could be some changes ?lower down? too, he added.

Responding to queries on why an expat had been appointed as the CEO, Manwani said HLL has provided parent Unilever with so many managers in senior posts, so there should be no insecurity in getting an expat in.

He said the Unilever board has two managers from HLL. Guninder Kapur heads Unilever?s operations in Nigeria. Adhikari is moving to Japan to lead Unilever's operations in the highly sophisticated market.