Brands
Sunanda Khaitan appointed CMO, beauty & wellbeing at HUL
MUMBAI: Hindustan Unilever has handed the reins of its beauty and wellbeing portfolio to a familiar face. Sunanda Khaitan has been appointed chief marketing officer for the category, marking a new milestone in her nearly two-decade-long journey with Unilever.
Khaitan steps into the role after a successful stint as vice president and business head of Lakmē, where she sharpened the brand’s premium edge while keeping it firmly rooted in mass appeal. Her elevation signals continuity with confidence for one of HUL’s most competitive and culturally influential businesses.
Khaitan’s career reads like a guided tour of Unilever’s beauty playbook. From cutting her teeth in sales to shaping global narratives for brands such as Fair and Lovely, Citra and Ponds, she has worked across markets, categories and consumer mindsets. Her time as global brand director for Haircare further added an international lens to her leadership.
What sets her apart is range. Few marketers can claim equal fluency in street level sales realities and global brand strategy. At HUL, she has moved steadily from area sales manager to the top marketing role, gathering insights, instincts and credibility along the way.
As Beauty and Wellbeing continues to evolve, blending science, self care and storytelling, Khaitan’s appointment feels timely. With deep brand knowledge and a knack for staying relevant, she now has the task of keeping HUL’s beauty portfolio both future ready and firmly in the public imagination.
For Unilever, it is a homegrown leader stepping into the spotlight. For the category, it is a steady hand with a sharp eye on what consumers want next.
Brands
LINC Limited appoints Hitesh Singla as head of marketing
The writing instruments giant has hired Hitesh Singla as head of marketing, betting on his two decades of brand-building firepower to ink a bolder consumer story
KOLKATA: LINC Limited, the Kolkata-based writing instruments manufacturer with a footprint spanning more than 50 countries, has appointed Hitesh Singla as its head of marketing, a hire that signals the company’s intent to fight harder for consumer attention in one of India’s most fiercely contested stationery categories.
Singla arrives with over two decades of marketing muscle behind him, having built, revived and scaled brands across consumer durables, personal care, healthcare, retail and houseware. His CV reads like a tour of Indian and global brand management: he introduced and grew Stabilo, UHU and Rapid in the Indian market, helped revive product categories for Revlon, and most recently served as head of marketing at KAI India, where he sharpened the brand’s presence in personal grooming and houseware.
Before KAI, Singla held leadership roles at Godrej & Boyce and the Avantha Group, among others, organisations where scale, complexity and consumer diversity are non-negotiable realities.
At LINC, he will own the company’s end-to-end marketing strategy: brand equity, integrated campaigns and consumer engagement, all calibrated to a market that is shifting fast. His approach blends data-driven insight with what he calls creative storytelling, precisely the kind of bilingual fluency that legacy brands need when nostalgia alone will no longer do the heavy lifting.
“LINC Limited holds a strong legacy in the writing instruments category,” said Singla, “and I look forward to building on this foundation to further strengthen its brand relevance in a rapidly evolving market. The focus will be on driving sharper consumer insights, innovation-led marketing, and creating deeper engagement across touchpoints.”
An alumnus of Punjab University with a master’s degree in international business, Singla is said to be as comfortable with cultures, languages and history as he is with a campaign brief, a disposition that may serve him well as LINC pushes deeper into global markets.
For a company that already sells pens across five continents, the real challenge now is making consumers care which pen they pick up. Singla’s job is to make sure it is a LINC.
