Brands
Britannia elevates Siddharth Gupta to vice president marketing
FMCG veteran rises after leading core biscuits and snacks brands
MUMBAI: Britannia Industries has elevated Siddharth Gupta to vice president marketing, marking the latest step in a career shaped by some of the country’s most recognisable FMCG brands. The move recognises his contributions across brand strategy, product innovation and marketing leadership.
Gupta has spent more than eight years at Britannia, steadily rising through the ranks. He currently serves as marketing head for biscuits, wafers and snacks, a role he took on in April 2025 after three years as general manager marketing. In that phase, he led core portfolios such as premium creams, crackers, marie and milk biscuits, categories that sit at the heart of Britannia’s shelves and sales.
Before that, he handled roles including senior category head for milk, marie and crackers, and category head for crackers and tiger, building experience across both legacy favourites and value-driven mass brands.
Prior to joining Britannia, Gupta spent nearly eleven years at Colgate-Palmolive, where he worked across sales, shopper marketing and brand management. His responsibilities ranged from handling the visible white, max fresh and sensitive toothpaste portfolios to leading innovation on products such as active salt healthy white and the painout tooth pain relief gel.
Over the years, he also managed toothbrush categories, modern trade initiatives and regional sales, giving him a ground-up understanding of the business, from shop floor to brand boardroom.
With this elevation, Gupta takes on a wider leadership brief at Britannia, as the company continues to sharpen its marketing playbook across biscuits, snacks and beyond.
Brands
Lululemon picks former Nike executive to be its next chief
Heidi O’Neill, who helped grow Nike into a $45 billion giant, will take the top job in September
CANADA: Lululemon has found its next chief executive, and she comes with serious credentials. The athleisure giant named Heidi O’Neill as its new CEO on Wednesday, ending a search that has left the company running on interim leadership since earlier this year. O’Neill will take charge on September 8, 2026, based out of Vancouver, and will join the board on the same day.
O’Neill brings more than three decades of experience across performance apparel, footwear and sport. The bulk of that time was spent at Nike, where she was a central figure in one of corporate sport’s great growth stories, helping take the company from a $9 billion business to a $45 billion global powerhouse. She oversaw product pipelines, brand strategy and consumer connections, and played a significant role in shaping how Nike spoke to athletes around the world. Earlier in her career, she worked in marketing for the Dockers brand at Levi Strauss. She also brings boardroom experience from Spotify Technology, Hyatt Hotels and Lithia and Driveway.
The board was unequivocal in its enthusiasm. “We selected Heidi because of the breadth of her experience, her demonstrated success delivering breakthrough ideas and initiatives at scale, and her ability to be a knowledgeable change and growth agent,” said Marti Morfitt, executive chair of Lululemon’s board.
O’Neill, for her part, was bullish. “Lululemon is an iconic brand with something rare: genuine guest love, a product ethos rooted in innovation, and a global platform still in the early stages of its potential,” she said. “My job will be to accelerate product breakthroughs, deepen the brand’s cultural relevance, and unlock growth in markets around the world.”
Until she arrives, Meghan Frank and André Maestrini will continue as interim co-CEOs, before returning to their previous senior leadership roles once O’Neill steps in.
Lululemon is betting that a Nike veteran who helped build one of the world’s most powerful sports brands can do something similar for an athleisure label that has genuine love from its customers but is still chasing its full global potential. O’Neill has done it before at scale. The question now is whether she can do it again.
