Hemant Bakshi

As Global Head and Executive Vice President of Unilever Marketplace, I have built a digitally native eB2B business that connects directly with more than 250,000 traditional trade stores across 12 markets in Latam, Asia and Middle-East. This has been one of the most exciting roles of my career as we have developed a start-up within a large Corporate, with its own culture, ways of working and reward systems. Going from scratch to more than $1Bln GMV in 2 years. In my previous role, I led Unilever Indonesia, a USD 3 Billion, listed company on an exciting transformation journey as the CEO of the business. Indonesia is truly a crown in the jewel for Unilever, its fourth largest business and one of the most valuable companies in Indonesia. I led the transformation of the brand portfolio aligned to the changing Muslim culture in the country and also digitized the Route to Market. I am particularly proud of building a diverse, fully gender-balanced leadership team of local talent while delivering consistent and profitable growth. I started my career more than 30 years back in Hindustan Unilever Ltd, in India playing multiple roles across Customer Development, Marketing and Ecommerce before being appointed to the Management Committee in 2008 as head of Customer Development. Later I led the Home and Personal Care business as the Executive Director. During this period HUL was recognized with the Compass Award for Excellence in Customer Development and in Home and Personal Care for Consumer Connectivity. The business was also recognized externally when it won 3 Cannes Platinum Lions for excellence in Advertising. Engaging with the larger ecosystem and building large scale sustainable business systems has been an enduring passion. I have been the past Chairman of Indian Society of Advertisers, Indian Beauty and Hygiene Association, Mobile Marketing Association of Indonesia and of course the non-Executive Chairman of Unilever Indonesia. I have also been a Director on the Board of BARC and ASCI in India and PRAISE in Indonesia. It was my honor to be named the Business Leader of the Year twice by Forbes in 2016 and 2019. My purpose is to work with people around me to achieve goals that even they believe are beyond them. Working across different countries, functions and teams; I have been able to fulfill this, time and again. This I find the most fulfilling and meaningful part of my job. I treasure the values of integrity, honesty, responsibility and pioneering and I am fortunate that these are also the values of the Company I work for.