SC Johnson's Lenny Chuah returns to Unilever as marketing director

Unilever has appointed Lenny Chuah to the role of marketing director, beauty and personal care overseeing Malaysia and Singapore. Among the list of brands under Chuah's (pictured) charge include Lifebuoy, Sunsilk, Dove, Rexona, Vaseline, Clear and Lux. Her role includes developing the growth strategy for the category, leading portfolio transformation and implementing marketing campaigns that connects with consumers in Malaysia and Singapore.

Based in Kuala Lumpur, she reports to VP of beauty and personal care, Southeast Asia Tigers, Pakachat Taychaburapanone, who is based in Thailand. On a day-to-day basis, Chuah works closely with GM of Malaysia and Singapore Marcos Nakagawa while leading a team of 20. 

"I hope to continue the growing momentum of Unilever's beauty and personal care business, build purposeful brands and develop talent bench for the company. Using the scale of Unilever system, I hope we can continue to bring exciting product innovations to Malaysian and Singaporean consumers, have communication that resonate with them and finally, bring positive impact to their lives. My vision is to build an admirable #planet&peoplepositive beauty and personal care business in these two countries," Chuah told A+M.

Chuah started her career with Unilever as a management trainee in the supply chain department. She later rose up the ranks and took on roles including senior brand manager and marketing manager. She has also worked at SC Johnson for slightly over four years, last helming the role of director, marketing commercialisation, ASEAN. She first joined the team in 2016 as regional marketing manager, marketing commercialisation, ASEAN, before being promoted to marketing director, marketing commercialisation pest control and shoe care, ASEAN, her LinkedIn said. Before that, she was the marketing manager at The Coca-Cola Company for more than a year.

"My experience with Coca-Cola and SC Johnson is further enrichment of the marketing experience and foundation that I have built in my first stint in Unilever. My forte has always been about identifying consumer pain points and unmet needs, turning that consumer insights into a meaningful business idea," Chuah said. She explained that her last four years in a regional role at SC Johnson helped broaden her expertise beyond Malaysia and Singapore.

Reason being, she had the chance to work on a spectrum of countries, ranging from "declining business turnaround to growing a high-flying business to achieve greater heights". Chuah added that having worked in various categories over the years, she is able to "look at the category's issue beyond just its own category lens". 

"I am able to tackle the business issues with more perspectives. I also had the the opportunity to lead a very diverse team in SC Johnson which helps to shape my leadership style. I aim to build a high performing and close-knit marketing team in Unilever," she added.

According to her, returning to Unilever is "beyond a dream come true". In fact, Chuah described it as "coming back to a warm welcoming home". She explained that she resonates with Unilever's values and feels energised by the people she works with locally and globally.

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