Sanjiv Kakkar
Executive Vice President Unilever Arabia, MENA, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus & Turkey
Sanjiv Kakkar was appointed as the Executive Vice President of Unilever MENA & Turkey on October 1st, 2013. He was given the added responsibility of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in August 2014. As of June 2020, Sanjiv has also taken on direct responsibility for the Arabia markets as its Managing Director.
Sanjiv joined Unilever in 1984. He has held a broad range of positions in the Beverage, Food, Home and Personal Care businesses of the company while working in a variety of roles in both sales and marketing. Between 2006 – 2008, he held the positions of Executive Director Foods and thereafter Executive Director Customer Development on the Board of Hindustan Unilever Limited, India. He then moved to Russia in 2008 as Executive Vice President Russia, Ukraine and Belarus until 2013.
Sanjiv was also nominated as the Chairman of the Advertising Business Group (ABG), the region’s largest Advertising and Marketing self-regulatory organisation in Dec. 2016. The ABG has over 60 members, including the region’s leading marketing companies, advertising agencies and on-line platforms and which account for over 70% of the regions advertising & marketing spend.
Sanjiv is based in Dubai, U.A.E. which is Unilever’s regional MENA headquarter.
Sanjiv earned a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 1984. He also holds a BA in Economics from the Hindu College, Delhi.