Brands
Ramya Venkat moves from HUL to Abbot
MUMBAI: From Hindustan Unilever to Abbot. That’s the leap marketer Ramya Venkat has taken. She has joined the pharmaceutical and health care company as director integrated marketing.
She will have her hands more than full at Abbot. The 135 year old multinational – which was started by a physician and drugstore owner Wallace C. Abbott who began producing accurate, scientifically formulated medications – has more than 600 products in its portfolio. (It was established in India in 1910) . Among the categories it is present in: nutritional, diabetes care, vascular, diagnostics, and pharmaceuticals.
Among its better known brands figure: Digene, Duphalac, Cremaffin, Librax, Brufen, Surbex XT, Genticyn eye drops, Limcee, Librium, Secnil Forte, Stemetil, Valium, PediaSure, Ensure, and Glucerna.
Ramya spent 14 years at Hindustan Unilever working on several brands beginning with Wheel, Sunlight, Magic moving on to Comfort, then surface cleaners, Close Up and finally ending up as senior regional brand manager, Indulekha.
Prior to Unilever, she spent a year and half working as a brand assistant – OTC with Johnson & Johnson. She began her career in advertising at Ogilvy & Mather rising to become account supervisor before joining J&J.
“As the song goes, every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.. I’m excited for this next professional chapter I’m about to embark upon,” is what Ramya, a national badminton player, posted on Linkedin while announcing her move to Abbot.
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.
