Award for President of Unilever Asia / Africa

The coveted Asia Business Leader of the Year was awarded to Harish Manwani of Unilever Asia/Africa for effectively capitalising on global trends and leveraging the global scale of Unilever to deliver accelerated strong growth while significantly increasing profitability in Asia / Africa for his company.

This is largely attributable to Manwani's ability to align and motivate staff to a common agenda. He has led the way in retaining loyal customers, helping Unilever to remain market leaders in almost every key category. His innovative and visionary leadership has helped build a strong core of local management teams across the 43 operating companies under the Unilever umbrella.

Manwani has emphasized the need to develop leaders who understand the changing landscape of commercial trade, and he has been actively involved in nurturing a core of solid leaders to ensure continued success for Unilever.

He has consistently encouraged his leadership team to focus on an integrated approach towards rural markets with substantial positive impact on the business and its people. Coupled with his strong commitment to Social Responsibility, Unilever has continued to strengthen its corporate reputation within the region.

He has helped bring increased focus of the top management team around the vast growth potential and strategies for the Developing and Emerging markets.

"As a professional manager, I am very conscious of the fact that the honour that you have bestowed on me is, first and foremost for my company Unilever and for the thousands of employees in Asia who have made us worthy of this recognition," said Manwani.