CPO Nitin Paranjpe Hangs His Boots After 37 Years At Unilever

After a distinguished career spanning nearly four decades at Unilever, Nitin Paranjpe is set to retire from his position as Chief People & Transformation Officer at the end of June. 

He confirmed his departure on social media, stating, “At the end of this month I will be retiring from Unilever after 37 years – almost to the day. I joined what was then called Hindustan Lever Ltd back in June 1987 on a management training scheme… and I never left.”

Paranjpe has been instrumental in leading Unilever's business transformation and human resources functions. 

He embarked on his journey with Unilever in 1987 as a management trainee and steadily climbed the corporate ladder. His roles included brand manager for Household Cleaning, regional manager for the South region, category head & regional brand director, executive director of Home & Personal Care, and CEO of Hindustan Unilever & EVP for South Asia.

In 2013, Paranjpe became the President of Homecare and joined the Unilever Leadership Executive. After five years in this position, he advanced to President of Foods & Refreshment before becoming Chief Operating Officer in 2019. In January 2022, he was promoted to Chief People & Transformation Officer.

Reflecting on his career, Paranjpe remarked, “Once I was here, I really never thought beyond three years or so, because every role I reached felt like a new success. I have always said that when I was made Head of Sales I could have retired, happy with where my career had got to. And it’s true! Everything beyond that role has been purely a bonus.”

Hinting at future endeavors, he added, “And of course, the cliché is true: retirement really isn’t anything more than the start of a new innings. But I will speak more about that in a future post.”