Try GOLD - Free
Pulling All The Right Levers
The New Indian Express Mangaluru
|July 13, 2025
Dalal Street has given a five-notch salute to the news of a small-town girl Priya Nair moving to the corner room of the country's largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) maker.
It is less about her being the first-ever woman to lead the 92-year-old Hindustan Unilever, but more about her accomplishments during her three decades in the company.
Priya's journey began in 1995 as a management trainee in the company, also known as the 'CEO Factory' for grooming dozens of trainees into chief executives of large multinational corporations.
Born into a middle-class Malayalee family in Maharashtra's sugar town of Kolhapur, Priya does not boast of a degree from top B-schools—she graduated from Sydenham College in Bombay and then earned a master's in marketing from Symbiosis Management Institute in Pune (not from top-tier IIMs). Nair's rise to the top itself breaks many a myth.
This story is from the July 13, 2025 edition of The New Indian Express Mangaluru.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM The New Indian Express Mangaluru
The New Indian Express Mangaluru
A Portrait Framed in Awe
A deeply conflicted reading of a long-awaited Gulzar biography—where devotion overwhelms discovery, and the translation outshines
3 mins
January 11, 2026
The New Indian Express Mangaluru
Fires at Nirav Modi diamond unit raise doubts
Authorities tight-lipped
2 mins
January 11, 2026
The New Indian Express Mangaluru
An Aftertaste of Absence
Chef Thomas Zacharias presents a speculative, bite-by-bite journey into a future where flavour has vanished
2 mins
January 11, 2026
The New Indian Express Mangaluru
Self-reliance is mantra for country’s prosperity: Shah
EMPHASISING the need to promote ‘Swadeshi’ and ‘Swabhasha,’ Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday exhorted people to use local products and converse in one’s mother tongue at home.
1 mins
January 11, 2026
The New Indian Express Mangaluru
Up Above the World So High
High in the Girjan Valley, a sloping pitch holds together a community better than any road ever has
2 mins
January 11, 2026
The New Indian Express Mangaluru
Can Shubman Gill in the blanks?
Batter has been subdued in recent times & will be hoping to regain mojo in ODI series vs NZ
3 mins
January 11, 2026
The New Indian Express Mangaluru
'Avatar was the Turning Point in My Career'
Zoe Saldana tells Katie Ellis why she felt blue in a different way while making Avatar: Fire and Ash
3 mins
January 11, 2026
The New Indian Express Mangaluru
Sergio Gor, Trump’s man in India for turbulent times, reaches Delhi
SERGIO
1 min
January 11, 2026
The New Indian Express Mangaluru
States oppose changes in MGNREGA in pre-Budget meet
STATES have vehemently opposed the proposed changes in MGNREGA, and called for more fiscal space during a pre-Budget consultation chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday.
1 mins
January 11, 2026
The New Indian Express Mangaluru
DONROE DOCTRINE AND US’ NEO-IMPERIALISM
JUST when you thought Donald Trump had crossed all red lines and he couldn’t do anything crazier, he surprises you by stretching the limits of unacceptability.
4 mins
January 11, 2026
Listen
Translate
Change font size