Leena Nair

How did a woman with zero fashion experience end up running Chanel?

Leena Nair didn’t grow up flipping through Vogue.

She grew up in Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

Where girls were expected to get married, not get MBAs.

Still, she became the first woman in her family to pursue higher education.

She studied engineering and earned her MBA from XLRI as a gold medalist.

Her first job?

She was on the factory floor at Hindustan Unilever.

While others climbed the corporate ladder the traditional way, Leena took the “unsexy” jobs.

Managing factory workers, running plants in remote towns, learning the gritty details of operations.

It made her tough. It made her empathetic. And it made her ready.

Over the next three decades, Leena rose through the ranks of Unilever, eventually becoming the company’s youngest-ever, first female, and first Asian Chief Human Resources Officer.

She oversaw a 150,000-person workforce across 190 countries.

She pushed the percentage of female managers from 38% to 50%.

She helped Unilever commit to paying a living wage across its entire supply chain by 2030.

She simplified HR systems to focus on people, not paperwork.

Then came a phone call that would change everything.

The CEO of Chanel (a role typically reserved for luxury insiders) was offered to a woman who had never worked a day in fashion.

But Alain Wertheimer, the brand’s owner, didn’t want more of the same.

He wanted a leader who understood people, purpose, and scale.

So he hired Leena.

In 2022, she became the first Indian and the first woman of color to run Chanel.

Her first move?

She listened.

She visited 25 offices, 40 factories, and 100 retail locations.

She talked to everyone from seamstresses to sales associates.

Her philosophy was simple: “Seek to understand before you seek to change.”

But she did change things.

She launched No.1 de Chanel, a sustainable beauty line.

She opened invite-only boutiques to preserve the brand’s exclusivity.

She pushed women into 60% of leadership roles.

She scaled Foundation Chanel’s annual funding from $20M to $100M.

Supporting gender equity and cultural programs worldwide.

She believes the future of leadership is about collective intelligence, empathy, and listening deeply.

Leena once doubted whether she could be a CEO at all.

She told her mentor Indra Nooyi she lacked experience, connections, the “right” background.

Indra shut her down with a single question: “Do you even know what you bring?”

Now Leena speaks openly about the fear that keeps women from dreaming big.

She shares how panels asked her about childcare while her male peers got questions on geopolitics.

She talks about imposter syndrome, about being “the first” in every room, and about the importance of mentoring women to be second, third, tenth.

Until there’s nothing remarkable about it anymore.