Kannan Sitaram

Mr. Kannan Sitaram ("Kannan") is B. Tech from IIT, Madras and MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad. He has participated in executive programs at Carnegie Mellon and Kellogg Business School.

Mr. Kannan has over 3 decades of experience building consumer product businesses in India. He started his career with Ponds (India) Limited and had several stints as a Sales and Brand and Category Manager. He moved to Hindustan Lever Limited ("HLL") in 1993, post Unilever's global acquisition of Chesebrough Ponds. At HLL, he held several Senior Leadership positions first as National Sales Manager for the rapidly growing personal products business, then as National Sales Manager for the Detergents business, at that time India's largest consumer product business. In these roles he led HLL's thrust into rural markets and played a key role in several restructuring initiatives. He, thereafter, was Head of Marketing for HLL's large beverages business where he led the consolidation of the tea business under 2 brands - Brooke Bond and Lipton. He then moved to Unilever's corporate Head Quarter in London in 2002 to join the Corporate Strategy Group where he worked with Unilever's Executive Committee to develop Unilever's global corporate strategy across the foods, home care and personal care businesses.