Banga to join M&S

Vindi Banga, the former chairman of Hindustan Unilever, will be Non-Executive Director,

Marks & Spencer, from September. Banga spent 33 years at Unilever, where he was the former president of the global foods, home and personal care businesses and member of the Unilever Executive Board. He quit Unilever after failing to land the chief executive’s job. Right now he is an operating partner at private equity investment firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice. Interestingly, Vindi Banga’s brother Ajay Banga left Citigroup after similarly failing to get the top position.

Vindi Banga is a gold medal winner from IIM, Ahmedabad. He is also non-executive director of Thomson Reuters and Maruti Suzuki India and has been on the Prime Minister of India’s Council of Trade and Industry since 2004. In his 33 years at Unilever, he has been credited with transformational accomplishments at the global FMCG major. Marks & Spencer entered India in 2001-02 through a franchise agreement with Planet Retail. In 2008, it announced a 51:49 joint venture with Reliance Retail.