What Fashion Can Learn From Chanel’s New Global CEO
The luxury giant’s appointment of Leena Nair, the former chief human resources officer at Unilever, marks the first time a woman of colour will lead a major global luxury brand. It’s a much-needed change for fashion.
This week, Chanel surprised the fashion world with its choice of a new global chief executive.
The luxury giant tapped Leena Nair, the former chief human resources officer at Unilever, generating front-page headlines in her native India. She received an outpouring of congratulations on social media, comparing her to other Indian business leaders who have risen to the top of Western companies including Microsoft, Twitter and Pepsi Co., whose former chief executive officer Indra Nooyi publicly congratulated Nair on her new role.
While her background in consumer packaged goods is not entirely unprecedented — a number of luxury industry leaders including Dior’s Pietro Beccari and LVMH’s Antonio Belloni at LVMH came from Henckel and Procter & Gamble, respectively — Nair’s appointment stands out because of her expertise in human resources.
“HR is no longer a backroom department, it’s a vital part of running any successful business,” Nair wrote in a LinkedIn post four months ago. “And if you want to support your people, you need to understand how the business works, and you need to be visible within the business.”
Young talent today seek employers that put diversity, inclusion and social responsibility front and centre. Luxury competitor Kering, for one, has spent the last few years focusing on sustainability through initiatives like its environmental profit and loss account and investment in secondhand marketplace Vestiaire Collective.
Chanel has been slower to change and has been reticent about its sustainability initiatives (Chanel declined to comment). One professor of fashion design told The Guardian that Chanel is still “adhering to a Eurocentric, colonialist approach to fashion.” By handing its top position to an HR pro, Chanel is signalling that modernising its culture is just as important as generating profits.
Nair’s ascension to the top job at Chanel also marks an important step for gender and inclusion within fashion. When she assumes her position in January, Nair will be the only woman of colour running a major global luxury brand.
For Nair, however, it’s not just the glass ceiling that she’s shattering. In contrast to luxury leaders like François-Henri Pinault or Bernard Arnault, she was born and raised in India. Nair climbed the ladder at Unilever throughout her 30-year tenure before eventually becoming the first woman and youngest-ever chief human resources officer at Unilever, which in itself makes her a strong candidate to take the lead of a global brand like Chanel.
But in an industry where the key customers are predominantly women, fashion has a poor track record in promoting women to top positions. Luxury, in particular, has long stuck with safe and familiar hires; often choosing white men from privileged backgrounds.
Fashion has a major opportunity to be a pioneer in giving women leadership roles and this week, Chanel has demonstrated that it is ready to take the lead.