HUF’s vision is to make water security commonplace, help communities thrive.
The HUF Board
The board consists of experienced Unilever leaders who drive the team. Their rich experience, expertise and passion adds immense value to the cause of water conservation.
BP Biddappa (1 of 4)
Mr BP Biddappa is the Executive Director and Chief People, Transformation and Sustainability Officer for HUL.
Prior to this, he was Chief HR Officer for Unilever’s Global Home Care business and Global Head of Employee Relations for Unilever. During his tenure in Global Home Care over the prior 5 years, and as part of a wider portfolio, he led two critical expertise functions for Unilever globally: Organisational Development & People Analytics and Employee Relations. During this period, he was also instrumental in helping build Unilever's Health and wellbeing business.
He has earlier led the HR function for HUL and Unilever South Asia as the Executive Director, HR for Hindustan Unilever Limited between 2013 to 2019. During that time, he set up the Winning in Many Indias approach, creating a more agile and focused business unit framework in South Asia. On the Sustainability front, Prabhat, HUL’s community development initiative that touches millions of lives across India was launched under his leadership.
Biddappa started his over three-decade career in Unilever with a factory stint in HUL and then moved on to undertake a variety of roles, from leadership development to business partnering, across several Unilever businesses. He has led HR for Unilever in Maghreb, Bangladesh, India and for Unilever’s Supply Chain and Finance teams in Asia, Africa and Russia while he was based out of Singapore.
He joined Unilever in 1992 after a stint as a Consultant at AF Ferguson & Co, New Delhi.
He graduated in Economics from Delhi University and has a post-graduation diploma in Personnel Management & Industrial Relations from XLRI Jamshedpur.
Ritesh Tiwari (2 of 4)
Ritesh Tiwari is the Executive Director, Finance & IT and Chief Financial Officer of Hindustan Unilever Limited. He is also the Chief Financial officer for Unilever, South Asia.
Ritesh is a global finance leader with rich experience in leading diverse teams across the UK, India, and other Asian markets. He is a future-focused, high-energy, results-oriented business leader driven by his purpose 'Reimagine possibilities and bring value with values.'
Before his current role as the CFO of HUL, Ritesh was Vice President, Finance - Global Performance Management for Unilever and CFO for Unilever International based out of London, where he helped bring together the financial and human capital of Unilever to deliver performance with impact. He also played a pivotal role in Unilever's performance management, leading the strategic scenario planning and response during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ritesh joined Unilever as a management trainee in 1999 and held roles across core finance, demand planning and procurement within India and South Asia early in his career. He then went on to take leadership roles – namely, Global Category Finance Director based out of the UK, Group Financial Controller of HUL and Vice President Finance - Global Supply Chain based in Singapore. Driven by his mantra of 'delivering in the present while building for the future,' Ritesh is credited with bringing digital transformation, simplification, and leading projects with high business impact throughout his career.
Ritesh is an active member of various industry bodies, including President of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Independent Director on ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) Board, Chairman of the CFO Council of FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) and a member of the CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) National Committee for CFOs.
Ritesh is a Chartered Accountant & Cost and Management Accountant.
Srinandan Sundaram (3 of 4)
Mr Srinandan Sundaram (48) is the Executive Director, Home Care for Hindustan Unilever Limited.
Prior to this he was the Executive Director Foods & Refreshment for HUL and Executive Vice President, F&R, for Unilever, South Asia. Over the past 25 years, Srinandan has had stellar experience in leadership roles including marketing for several HUL business categories such as Personal care, Oral Care, Deodorants, Hair Care and Skin Care. He has also held leadership roles in Customer Development across General Trade and Modern Trade.
As Executive Director for Foods & Refreshment, he has been able to set the acquired GSK Consumer Healthcare business onto the growth path reflected in competitive performance of the portfolio in 2023. He was also instrumental in navigating the deflationary situation in Tea delivering competitive performance. During his stint the business seeded in new categories namely Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, international sauces, and incubation of Knorr Korean meal pot.
As the Executive Director for Customer Development (CD), he championed embedding the role of CD as a service organisation that served the needs of brands and customers, leveraging three interdependent ecosystems of Demand Capture, Demand Generation and Demand Fulfilment. In doing so, he pivoted CD to a High Tech - High touch function on the two pillars - digital & people, including partners. Through his leadership, Srinandan has successfully transformed HUL’s customer development function, moving to a technology backed strategy and data-driven approach to problem-solving.
His vision from a longer-term perspective is to create a leadership legacy by personally committing to and creating capable, future-fit leaders who are amazingly curious, ecosystem thinkers and can create cutting-edge capabilities on digital and analytics.
He has completed the Senior Executive Leadership Program from Harvard Business School, where he represented the batch as a speaker at the Harvard Club Dinner. Srinandan is a big buff of Bollywood movies, Cricket and is a big believer in technology-led process innovations.
Srinandan joined the company as a Management Trainee in 1999, post his MBA from IIM Calcutta.
Sashidhar Vempala (4 of 4)
Sashidhar Vempala is Head – Sustainability and CSR, HUL. He brings a strong understanding of the external landscape including emerging regulations and legislation related to ESG, and leading key interventions around carbon neutrality, environment management, ESG reporting, and community development. In his previous role, he was the CSO and Head CSR for Pernod Ricard India, leading their Sustainability and CSR agenda.
Before finding his passion for sustainability, he has worked across business and leadership roles in advertising, marketing across telecom, media and consumer durables at Lintas, Ogilvy, Tata Teleservices, Reliance and Nokia.
He is passionate about wildlife and biodiversity conservation. He has also authored books, and created documentary films on climate change and wildlife conservation.
National Advisory Council Members
The National Advisory Council (NAC) comprises of respected industry leaders. NAC members guide the HUF team navigate uncharted waters, and help move the needle on water security.
Ireena Vittal (1 of 2)
Ireena serves as a Board Member and a member of the Audit Committee of Titan Company Ltd., The Indian Hotels Company Ltd., Godrej Consumer Products Ltd., HDFC Ltd., Compass Plc, and non-profit organisations such as Vidhi Legal, Wateraid, and Educate Girls.
She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in BS Electronics from Osmania University, holds an MBA degree from IIM Calcutta, and has profound experience in emerging markets, Indian agriculture and urbanisation.
She has co-authored several studies related to agriculture and urbanisation which have helped the government and public institutions design and implement solutions for urban development and sustainable rural growth.
Geetu Verma (2 of 2)
Geetu is a Non-Executive Independent Director with Philips India Limited, United Breweries India Limited, and TruCap Finance Limited, and a strategy advisor to start-ups in the nutrition and social impact space, both in the Netherlands and India. She is a global management consultant helping businesses with innovation, strategy and new business models to create sustainable growth.
She has partnered with OxfordSM, a global strategic and marketing consultancy headquartered in the UK. She has also chaired the Sub-Committee on Food Regulation with CII from 2015-2018. Geetu is an immensely respected FMCG industry voice, an ardent advocate of authentic leadership and a strong proponent of an inclusive culture that helps diversity thrive.
She actively supports causes related to underprivileged children’s health and education.
Core team
HUF’s core team consists of environment conscious and impact focussed individuals, who partner with grassroots agencies to deliver innovative and pioneering programmes. They work to catalyse effective solutions on India’s water challenges involving government, communities, experts, and mission-based organisations.
Shraman Jha (Opens in new modal)
Chief Executive Officer
Shraman Jha (1 of 10)
Shraman’s role is to ensure that HUF delivers on its mandate, translating the aligned strategy into impactful outcomes.
Starting his career in 1993 with Unilever, he worked in diverse roles before moving on to other reputed organisations over the past thirty years. Shraman is passionate about the environment. Before joining HUF, He worked with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), helping drive their conservation and sustainability agenda. He also serves on the Board of GALVmed, an Edinburgh-based not-for-profit organisation working with the small-scale livestock producers of sub-Saharan Africa.
He is a Salzburg Global Seminar-21st Century Trust Fellow and a Chevening Senior Scholar to LSE. Shraman’s core degrees include an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, an M.A. in Economics from the University of Pune, and a B.A.(Hons.) in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.
Praveen Prakash (Opens in new modal)
Head - Operations
Praveen Prakash (2 of 10)
Praveen aims to work towards water security by building system and scale enablers, and forging networks for cross-learning at the Foundation.
He is an expert in building programmes, managing vital organisational functions with other business partners, and leveraging knowledge outcomes across the entire portfolio.
Praveen has over 20 years of experience in the development sector that covers a wide spectrum of the environment, social and governance agenda. He is passionate about climate and in his previous roles, he has explored various issues pertaining to energy, chemicals, waste and climate.
Praveen has been awarded the International Visitors Leadership Fellowship of the US Dept of State and is an alumnus of Leadership Accelerator Programme of the Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore.
Praveen holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Economics and a Master’s Degree in Ecology and Environment.
Kumud Joshi (Opens in new modal)
Programme Manager
Kumud Joshi (3 of 10)
Kumud is a subject matter expert in watershed and natural resource management for the Foundation.
He helps team members and partners conduct geographic analysis and apply remote sensing technologies for science-led water infrastructure creation and management.
Kumud has over 20 years of diverse experience in natural resource management, climate change, watershed, water resources, GIS/RS applications and project execution.
Kumud holds a postgraduate degree in Geoinformatics.
Rishu Garg (Opens in new modal)
Programme Manager
Rishu Garg (4 of 10)
Rishu supports water conservation initiatives of HUF in Northern Gujarat, Bundelkhand and Punjab.
He is also responsible for developing water governance understanding and perspective among different stakeholders. He is an ardent environmentalist who has championed the cause for community empowerment and local governance in sustainable development.
He has over two decades of experience working in development sector. He has worked across different geographies in India focussing on natural resource management- water, forests, agriculture, and environment. Prior to joining HUF, he has worked with the United Nations, DFID, and civil society organisations. He was also part of the national team at the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, GOI, that was responsible for rolling out Gram Panchayat Development Planning (GPDP) across the country.
Rishu is a postgraduate from the Indian Institute of Forest Management.
Kaushik Kumar (Opens in new modal)
Senior Coordinator, Prabhat
Kaushik Kumar (5 of 10)
Kaushik serves as the Senior Coordinator for Environmental Sustainability at Prabhat, Hindustan Unilever Limited’s (HUL) flagship factory program, which spans various locations across India.
In this role, he collaborates with civil society organizations and local communities surrounding HUL factories, focusing on initiatives to enhance water stewardship and promote regenerative agricultural practices among farmers.
With a background in environmental engineering and a master's degree in water policy and governance, Kaushik brings extensive experience to the development sector. Previously, Kaushik has led the effective implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural), advocated for participatory irrigation management policies, and contributed to policy recommendations on India’s manufacturing sector and innovations.
Nivedita Ghonge (Opens in new modal)
Programme Manager
Nivedita Ghonge (6 of 10)
Nivedita leads a large government supported programme in Chhattisgarh and manages the Data Management System at HUF.
She also manages a portfolio of start-ups, that work on viable solutions for water conservation and water use efficiency in agriculture. Her work with the Foundation’s Data Management System (DMS) enables real-time monitoring of programme data and season-wise tracking of key impact parameters for better insights and timely decision making.
Nivedita has over 12 years of experience across corporate and social sectors.
She completed a postgraduate program in Development Leadership and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Technology.
Angela Wood (Opens in new modal)
Assistant Finance Manager, CSR
Angela Wood (7 of 10)
Angela handles all the finance-related functions at the Foundation and is responsible for compliance, monitoring, audit, governance, and reporting.
She is a veteran of the Unilever ecosystem, with an experience of more than 25 years across teams and sub-functions. Angela is passionate about sustainability and water conservation initiatives.
Shilpa Gupta (Opens in new modal)
Team Assistant, Administration
Shilpa Gupta (8 of 10)
Shilpa supports the Foundation’s CEO and Programme Leads in ensuring that organisational goals are met, programme priorities are on track and there is no deviation from the approved progress plan.
She has over 10 years of work experience across corporate sectors. She has worked extensively in education and hospitality. She holds a master’s degree in human resources from Pune University.
Priyanka Rawat (Opens in new modal)
Assistant Manager - Communications
Priyanka Rawat (9 of 10)
Priyanka Rawat is the Communications Consultant at Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF). Through her experience and expertise, she aims to highlight many narratives that surround water in our country. She believes community driven efforts are bound to make an impact and change the fabric of development solutions in India.
Priyanka has 13 years of experience working in the social sector supporting government, civil society, communities, media and various other key stakeholders. As a communication specialist she has successfully helped stakeholders build a better response to issues such as bonded labor, sex-trafficking, labor issues, migration, child nutrition, livelihood for women, health, and gender.
She holds a master’s degree in history from Delhi University.
Sagar Suri (Opens in new modal)
Assistant Programme Manager
Sagar Suri (10 of 10)
Sagar is the Programme Consultant at Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF). He brings over a decade of dedicated experience in the development sector. His journey commenced at the Centre for Environment Education, where he managed the Youth Programme and collaborated extensively with UNEP for the South Asia Youth Environment Network.
Transitioning through diverse roles, Sagar has made impactful contributions at organisations like the India Health Action Trust, ADRA India, and WWF-India, showcasing his versatility in various capacities. Throughout his career, Sagar's dedication has been pivotal in driving initiatives across multiple domains within the development sector.
An MBA graduate from Liverpool Business School, he combines his academic acumen with practical expertise, contributing significantly to innovative strategies in sustainable development.