Tata Sons, the holding firm of all Tata Group companies, has appointed Harish Manwani as an independent director. With this induction, the total number of directors on Tata Sons’ board has increased to 12.

Manwani, the former Global Chief Operating Officer for Unilever and non-executive chairman of Hindustan Unilever, is also a global executive adviser to PE major Blackstone.

“Manwani brings substantial experience of managing and leading businesses on a global scale. His contribution and counsel will be of great value to Tata Sons in its governance as well as in its strategic development,” N Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons, said in a statement.

Apart from Chandrasekaran, the members on the board include former bureaucrat Vijay Singh, industrialists Ajay Piramal and Venu Srinivasan, and Dean of Harvard Business School Nitin Nohria among others.

Manwani is also on the board of Qualcomm, Gilead Sciences, Nielsen Holdings, Whirlpool Corp, Economic Development Board (EDB) of Singapore and is the Chairman of the Executive Board of the Indian School of Business. In 2012, he was conferred the Public Service Medal by the Singapore Government.

He joined the then Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) in 1976 as a management trainee and later in 2005, he was appointed as president, Asia, Africa and Middle East of Unilever Executive in 2005. From 2011 to 2014, he was the chief operating officer of Unilever.

During this 42-year tenure with Unilever Group, he had handled multiple responsibilities and was hailed for the massive growth in the personal products category, which includes skincare, oral care and laundry.

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