Board of Directors

Mr. M.S. Jacob is the Whole-time Director & Chief Financial Officer at Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited (CPIL), since October 2016, providing overall financial leadership, including Investor Relations. Mr. Jacob joined CPIL in 1995 in the Continuous Improvement Group. Over the course of 30 years, Mr. Jacob served through leadership roles in Finance at Colgate-Palmolive Company’s subsidiaries in India, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia as well as at the Asia Pacific Division Head Quarters in Hong Kong. Prior to joining the position of CFO at CPIL, Mr. Jacob was Finance Director of Colgate-Palmolive Malaysia Group where he led several key initiatives including the local execution of the Global Growth Efficiency Program and a successful transition to the Goods & Services Tax. Mr. Jacob holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Mumbai University and is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Mr. Gunjit Jain is the Vice-President of Marketing for Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited. He joined the organization in 2008 and has held roles of increasing responsibility across customer development, marketing, innovation, strategy and leadership functions. He brings a rich breadth of experience, having worked across geographies including the United States, South-East Asia, Taiwan and India, and across categories including Oral Care, Personal Care and Home Care.

Gunjit is a strong proponent of bringing strategic clarity, championing diversity and acting with optimism. Most recently, as the Marketing Director for Hawley & Hazel (H&H) Taiwan, he managed Colgate and Darlie equities and led several successful initiatives that resulted in share growth momentum across categories, record brand health scores and 2X growth vs. category in E-Commerce.

Mr. Jain holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) in Delhi and a Bachelor’s in Computer Science & Engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology.

Mr. Balaji Sreenivasan is the Executive Vice-President, Human Resources at Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited (CPIL), since November 2020. He joined CPIL in 2005 in the Human Resources function. Over the years, Mr. Sreenivasan served through leadership roles in the Human Resources function at Colgate-Palmolive Company’s divisions and subsidiaries in India, Turkey, Central Asia & Caucasus, North Africa/Middle East Region, as well as at the Asia Pacific Division HeadQuarters in Hong Kong. Prior to assuming his current role, Mr. Sreenivasan was Human Resources Director, Asia-Pacific Supply Chain, where he and his team partnered closely with business leaders to strengthen organizational capabilities and drive transformation towards an agile and empowered culture across the region.

Mr. Ruchir Bhatnagar is the Vice President of Customer Development (CD) at Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited (CPIL).  Mr. Bhatnagar joined CPIL in 2011 as part of the CD organization and has held multiple roles over the last 11 years in the CD and Marketing team.

Known for his omni-first mindset, he has consistently led his teams to deliver sustained growth. Prior to Colgate India, Mr. Bhatnagar was known for building stronger capabilities in his team, elevating customer engagement and accelerating Colgate’s performance in markets such as Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

He began his career with Asian Paints (I) Ltd. where he worked across several sales and marketing roles for 7 years before moving to Colgate. 

Ruchir holds a Masters in Business Administration from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management in Pune, India. He has been part of Colgate’s Asian Leadership Program and Stanford Leadership development program.

Mr. Sriram Venkatasubramanian is the Vice President - End-to-End Supply Chain at Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited. Prior to this role, he held the position of President & Global Head of Operations, Supply Chain at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. Throughout his career, Mr. Sriram has also taken on leadership roles at Reckitt Benckiser & Fonterra. His professional journey began in 1997 with Colgate-Palmolive, where he worked across various functions until 2011. He holds a B.Tech degree from NIT, Surathkal, and a PG Diploma in Human Resources from XLRI Jamshedpur.

Ms. Swati Agarwal is the Vice President of Global Technology Center at Colgate-Palmolive India Limited (CPIL). She has been leading the India Research & Development Function since August’22, providing strategic leadership and technology support for Oral, Personal & Home Care category for India and multiple global markets. She brings in close to two decades of FMCG experience in conceptualizing, formulating and delivering high impact, market-leading consumer centric products across categories while working for Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser and Johnson & Johnson.

Swati has extensive R&D experience that spans across upstream & downstream product innovations, design, development and deployment across different regulated categories. Before Colgate, Swati served at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health in Singapore as APAC R&D Head – leading Oral Care, Feminine Hygiene and Wound Care. She is a subject-matter-expert in the Absorbent Hygiene product category.

Swati holds Chemical Engineering degree from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (H.B.T.I) Kanpur, India and also has multiple patents to her credit.

Swati’s life mantra is to strike balance into anything that one does. She is a strong advocate of sustainable development and strives to restore the crucial balance with nature.

Mr. Priyan Pillay is a highly accomplished and result-oriented legal counsel with a distinguished career spanning over 19 years. Mr. Pillay’s extensive expertise lies in corporate & commercial laws, ethics & compliance, and enterprise risk management, specifically within the FMCG sector. Prior to this, Mr. Pillay served as the Vice President, Chief Compliance Counsel at the Colgate-Palmolive Company, based in New York.

Mr. Pillay has successfully held multiple leadership roles, demonstrating a proven ability to strategically manage evolving global risk across highly competitive and regulated environments. Mr. Pillay’s experience includes solid exposure across diverse jurisdictions, including advising across the African continent and, most recently, globally on compliance matters. Mr. Pillay holds LLB (Bachelors of Law) and LLM (Master of Laws) from the Republic of South Africa and has also attended the Global Leadership Program at Stanford University, USA.