Fashion icon Chanel chooses Indian-born Leena Nair as CEO
By KRUTIKA PATHI and ELAINE KURTENBACH
Associated Press
NEW DELHI (AP) — The luxury fashion house Chanel has chosen Leena Nair, an industry outsider from India and longtime executive at Unilever, to be its new CEO. Analysts say her hiring signals how the brand is accounting for changing consumer awareness of the industry’s environmental impact and the importance of diverse hires. Nair tweeted that she was “humbled and honored” to be appointed to the role at the “iconic and admired company.” The news made a huge splash Wednesday in India, Nair’s birthplace, where she received scores of congratulations and compliments, one calling her a “serial glass-ceiling breaker.” Nair is due to step into her new role in January.
