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Hina Nagarajan has been named the new Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of India’s largest spirits company United Spirits Limited (USL), owned by British beverage giant Diageo, since July next year. With her elevation, she becomes the first woman to head the ₹ 28,500 crore-alcobev (alcoholic beverage) behemoth. And the industry is ecstatic.
“The first woman to lead the largest spirits company in India is indeed symbolic and can bring a more positive narrative to the industry,” says Sanjay Jain, financial advisor to the Indian spirits industry. “Ask for the bubbly only to see another capable, multifaceted leader take on the challenge at the helm of a highly visible company. And I like it, ”adds Priya Chetty-Rajagopal, managing partner of Multiversal Advisory, a CXO search and advisory firm. Chetty-Rajagopal expressed her hope that Nagarajan’s elevation was achieved because she has a track record of successful seasons behind her. “I assume the focus will be on an energetic and effective leader, [and] not a pink checkbox, ”he adds.
But Hina Nagarajan is not the first in the industry. The alcobev sector in India is generally viewed as primarily male-dominated, with former USL boss Vijay Mallya and Kishore Chhabria of Allied Blenders and Distillers viewed as the poster boys of the industry. Piercing this myth are also other women who have broken the glass ceiling for a top management position in this sector.
In fact, it was Diageo who first appointed a woman as CEO of its former Indian business entity (prior to integration with USL) at Abanti Sankaranarayanan in 2012. Currently, Sankaranarayanan is USL’s director of strategy and corporate affairs. , the corporate identity of the company is Diageo India, and it has appeared four times (2012 to 2015) in Indian fortuneList of most powerful women in business. The other female executive in the alcobev space is Roshini Sanah Jaiswal, who took over the reins of her family business Jagatjit Industries Limited, the makers of Aristocrat whiskey, in 2015.
Returning to Nagarajan, since joining Diageo in the summer of 2018, he has led the company’s African Regional Markets (ARM), which comprise operations in Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, the Indian Ocean, Angola, and several other countries. Prior to that, he spent more than 30 years in the consumer packaged goods industry and held various senior marketing and general management positions at Reckitt Benckiser (RB), Nestlé India and Mary Kay India. Before joining Diageo, he was MD China and SVP North Asia with RB. Under Nagarajan’s leadership, a USL statement said, ARM became a “significant growth engine” for Diageo Africa. According to the company, Nagarajan is known for “her passion and drive” to deliver results and her ability to create strong teams that deliver “exceptional results.”
“If a country can be run by a woman, so can a company, be it liquor or arms,” says Vijay Rekhi, former managing director and president of USL. “The function and art of management are gender neutral. The bottom line is how effectively an organization is built and driven to achieve its goals and the leader keeps it ready for the future, ”adds Rekhi, who now runs his own consulting firm Vizanar Alcobev & FMCG Advisors.
