Suresh Narayanan

Chairman & MD, Nestle India

Mr. Narayanan was appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director of Nestlé India in August 2015 and is on the Board of Directors of Nestlé India Limited. He also serves as the Chairman of CII National Committee on Food processing Industries. He is an Independent Director on the Board of Asian Paints Limited and also in the Board of Governors of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).

Under Mr. Narayanan’s leadership, Nestlé India has been recognized by several media houses and industry forums. He was recognized as ‘MNC in India of the year’ in 2022 by All India Management Association. In 2021 he featured amongst the Top 101 Male Gender Equality Champions Globally. In the same year, Nestlé India was conferred Outstanding Company of the year by CNBC TV18 India Business Leader Awards (IBLA). In 2020 Business Standard awarded Nestlé India as the MNC of the year, while Business World recognized Nestlé India for Best Financial Performance in the MNC Category and also bestowed ‘Purpose and Resilience’. He was conferred CNBC-AWAAZ Best Performing Leader for the MNC category in 2020. He was also honored as the Entrepreneurial CEO at EY Entrepreneur of The Year™ 2020. Business Today awarded him “Best CEO – FMCG” for two years consecutively in 2019 and 2020. He was recognized among the “Most Valuable CEOs” in 2019 by Business World. Under his leadership, Nestlé India won the “Best Governed Company Award for 2018” by Asian Centre for Corporate Governance & Sustainability. Mr. Narayanan was honoured Best CEO at the Forbes India Leadership Awards 2017 in the Multinational category.

Mr. Narayanan joined Nestlé in 1999 as Executive Vice President for Sales in India. His international career commenced from Nestlé Indochina in 2003, he has also served in Philippines, Singapore Egypt and NEAR (North East Africa Region).

Mr. Narayanan began his career as a Management Trainee with Hindustan Unilever, where he held numerous positions of increasing responsibility in Sales, Marketing and General Management. He has also worked with Colgate Palmolive in India.

He has participated in the Nestlé Leadership Program of the London Business School. He has delivered talks at NASSCOM forums, various Corporates, NUS School of Business-Singapore, American University–Cairo, Columbia University, Army War College Mhow, Naval War College-Goa and Business Schools such as IIM’s, ISB etc. in India.