Sudhanshu Vats, Pidilite Industries' new MD designate: More about the marketer from the HUL CEO factory
A marketing veteran, a marathoner and a product of the HUL CEO factory, Sudhanshu Vats led Viacom18 and EPL before he joined Pidilite Industries in 2021.
On February 29, The Board of Directors of Pidilite Industries Limited approved the appointment of Sudhanshu Vats as managing director designate. The Board also approved the appointment of Kavinder Singh as executive director and joint managing director designate. They will take charge as managing director and joint managing director, from April 2025, after the completion of term of the current Managing Director, Bharat Puri.
More about Vats - the marketer and HUL alumnus
Vats joined Pidilite as Deputy Managing Director in September 2021. An alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad and NIT Kurukshetra, he has a career of 30 years spanning diverse organisations like Unilever, BP (Castrol), Viacom18 and EPL (Formerly known as Essel Propack).
Vats was the Managing Director and CEO at EPL Limited in 2020 and 2021. Under his leadership the company grew in double digits in FY 21 despite Covid19 headwinds. His clearly articulated strategy of “Leading the Pack” with sustainability at its core and well-defined 5 Must Win Battles helped EPL maintain its strong run in the years ahead.
As Managing Director and Group CEO of Viacom18 Media Private Limited, he steered Viacom18 for eight years, helping transform a TV company with six channels to the fastest growing full-play media organization with presence across screens and platforms.
Viacom18 added three more lines of business, built a strong portfolio of Direct to Consumer Digital offerings under the VOOT brand and strengthened Data Science and analytics capability. Vats helped future-proof the media company that is admired for its culture, quality of talent and progressive people policies.
Vats started his career with Hindustan Unilever and spent about 20 years in various Sales & Marketing and General Management roles across categories. He joined HUL as a Management Trainee in 1991 from the Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad and worked with them in various roles across Home & Personal Care, and Foods categories in India and abroad.
During his tenure, he shaped many popular household brands, most notably Lipton, Vim, Wheel, Surf, Rin, Dove, Pears, Lifebuoy and Lux. He launched Domex, Lipton IceTea and Comfort in India.
In his last assignment with Unilever as Vice President – Laundry, South Asia and Global Vice President (Radiant), he grew the South Asia Laundry business in strong double digits crossing the Euro 1 billion turnover milestone in 2011 and made Radiant the fastest growing Laundry brand in the world crossing Euro 500 million turnover milestone. And in his earlier assignment as Vice President - Skin Cleansing and Laundry & HHC, HUL India, he aggressively grew market share, revenue and profitability of this very large segment.
During 2004-2005, Vats worked with BP in India as Vice President Marketing and led the Castrol Master brand re-launch. He has been the Chairman of the National Media and Entertainment Committee of CII, Vice President of Indian Broadcasting Foundation and Director at Broadcast Audience Research Council.
Vats, who is known to mentor a lot of young CEOs and CXOs, many of whom started their career with him, is also a Sub 4 hours marathon runner.
