Mr. Manvinder Singh Banga
Award Year: 2001 | Degree Year: 1975
Mr. Manvinder Singh Banga was born on October 31, 1954, and was IIT Delhi’s Gold Medalist in Mechanical Engineering in 1975. He then joined the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, where too he won the gold medal in the class of 1977.
Mr. Banga joined Hindustan Lever Limited as a Management Trainee in 1977. Up to 1992, he worked in a variety of Sales and Marketing assignments in the Detergents and Personal Care Categories in India including a spell with Lever Brothers, UK. From 1993 to 1995 he was the Head of Hindustan Lever Limited Personal Products Business.
Between August 1995 and the end of 1998 he was Executive Director and Head of the Soaps & Detergents Business – HLL’s largest business division, and also Unilever’s single largest Soaps and Detergent business by volume (1.1 million tonnes) with sales of about Rs. 4000 crores, 12,000 employees, and 16 factories. He was also the Category Leader for the Detergents business for Unilever’s Central Asia & Middle East Business Group. In December 1998 he moved to the Unilever Head Office in London as Senior Vice President and responsible for the Hair and Oral Care Categories with a total sales value of 2.5 billion. In addition, Mr. Banga led the Company’s initiative into mass-market foods. A new business model was created which won Unilever’s Foods Innovation Award in 1998.
In May 2000 he was appointed Chairman of Hindustan Lever Limited. Today, he is the youngest ever Chairman of India’s largest FMCG company and also the largest by market capitalization, with a turnover of Rs. 11000 crores and close to 40,000 employees. He has achieved this in a company, which is universally regarded for its professionalism in recognizing nothing but merit. This in itself indicates his exceptional, achievement, and excellence. Of course, on the road to Chairmanship, he has left marks of his excellence in creating new growth avenues for HLL’s existing businesses, establishing altogether new businesses and global strategy formulation for the parent company, Unilever’s worldwide business in 88 countries.
HLL has been well known as a company that nurtures talent. He has taken this to new heights. Since taking over as Chairman, he has made several changes to the organization’s structure to provide greater empowerment and make jobs richer, and to push decision-making deeper into the organization. Mr. Banga lives by the values he is driving in HLL – Courage, Truth, Action, and Caring.
In honoring Mr. Manvinder Singh Banga, we recognize the outstanding contributions made by him as a Leader in International Market, and through his achievements brought glory to the name of this Institute.
