Leena Nair, the first Indian-origin CEO of Chanel, has been leading the global luxury fashion brand since January 2022. Before joining Chanel, she served as the Chief Human Resources Officer at Unilever. In 2024, Chanel reported global revenues of USD 18.7 billion (approximately ₹1.6 lakh crore), making it the second-largest luxury brand in the world after Louis Vuitton.
She was born in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, and earned her degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from Walchand College of Engineering, Sangli. She was the first woman in her family to pursue higher education. Later, she completed her MBA in Human Resources from XLRI Jamshedpur in 1992 and began her career as a trainee at Hindustan Unilever.
At HUL, she broke workplace norms by becoming the first woman to work in a factory and take up night shifts. Nair says her readiness to accept grassroots-level roles played a key role in her career growth. Now based in London, she is married to financial entrepreneur Kumar Nair and has two sons. She is the daughter of K. Karthikeyan and is related to industrialists Vijay and Sachin Menon.
Under her leadership, Chanel has focused on strengthening its brand, improving customer experience, encouraging cultural relevance, and expanding sustainability efforts to create a broader global impact.
