Manvinder Singh Banga (or Vindi Banga) is a senior partner at the private equity fund Clayton Dubilier & Rice. He was previously a senior executive at Unilever as the Global President for Foods, Home & Personal Care - running all the categories, and was the lead internal candidate for the CEO position. Prior that position he was the CEO of Hindustan Lever Limited, one of largest companies in India. He is a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Thomson Reuters ($40B enterprise value), Marks & Spencer PLC, and the Prime Minister's Council for Trade & Industry, and was awarded the Padma Bhushan - one of India's highest civilian honours - in 2010.
Mr Banga is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India's premier management education institute.
Contents |
He was born on October 31, 1954 in Shimla to Jaswant and Harbhajan Singh Banga. His father was a general in the Indian Army. Early childhood saw Manvinder Singh (better known as Vindi) crisscross the country, living in small villages and larger towns, wherever his father was posted. Schooling however was a more settled affair, and he attended Delhi Public School, going on to graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1975 with a gold medal and a BTech degree in Mechanical Engineering. From Delhi he moved to Ahmedabad to study at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM-A), where he met his wife, Kamini. Here too Vindi earned a gold medal.
In May 2000, Vindi was elected chairman and CEO of one of India's largest and most respected companies, Hindustan Lever Ltd. At the time, he was the youngest CEO to ever have been appointed. In February 2005, as part of a major reorganization of Unilever's upper management, Banga was elevated to the Unilever Executive, as the global head of the Foods division.[1] In 2008, he was given additional responsibility for the Home and Personal Care Division, assuming the title of President, Foods and Home & Personal Care - effectively running all the categories across the globe. He was also in charge of the sustainability agenda for Unilever, as well as the R&D function. At this point, he was generally considered the lead candidate for the CEO position. However, in 2009, following the appointment of an external CEO, he departed to join Clayton Dubilier & Rice as a senior partner.
He is currently a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Thomson Reuters, Marks & Spencers PLC, and the Prime Minister's Council for Trade & Industry,[2] and was awarded the Padma Bhushan - one of India's highest civilian honours - by the President of India in 2010.[3]
Ajay Banga (Ajaypal Singh Banga) is his brother, who is currently the president and chief executive officer of MasterCard.[4]