Unilever's Neelesh Suryavanshee joins Fonterra as SEA marketing GM

Fonterra has appointed Neelesh Suryavanshee (pictured) as Southeast Asia GM for its marketing and chilled business. He was previously with Unilever Indonesia as VP for the hair and deodorant category. At Fonterra, he is responsible for developing the SEA dairy category vision and strategy and driving planning, creative development and execution of marketing across brands and channels, and leading capability development for the function inside Fonterra. Suryavanshee will also drive digital transformation and portfolio expansion to ensure Fonterra remains competitive in the future.

At Unilever, he led marketing functions including integrated go-to-market, creative, design, insights and media. Suryavanshee brings to the table almost 20 years of experience, first joining Unilever in 2001 as its consumer and market insights manager, as seen on his LinkedIn profile. He has since helped Unilever build brands across Southeast Asia helming various roles such as regional brand director and senior cluster director, across a variety of product categories including skin care and personal care. 

Meanwhile, it has also brought on board Kartika Guerrero as digital and media director for Southeast Asia. She joined from Unilever Indonesia where she was digital hub and uStudio lead. She also worked at Lion & Lion as MD and client director, and OgilvyOne as business director, her LinkedIn said.

Fonterra Co-operative Group is a New Zealand multinational publicly traded dairy co-operative owned by around 10,500 New Zealand farmers. According to the company, it is responsible for approximately 30% of the world's dairy exports and with revenue exceeding approximately US$12 billion. Most recently, Fonterra made the news for its ongoing US$115.5 million deal on China joint venture farms Singapore-based AustAsia Investment Holdings, according to Channel NewsAsia.

Last year in July, Unilever Singapore’s former managing director and veteran marketer, Susanne Arfelt Rajamand, also joined Fonterra as its GM. Her current role followed her departure as Unilever’s MD in 2017 after having been with the company for over 14 years. Meanwhile; earlier this year in March, the company appointed former director, marketing commercialisation of SC Johnson, Lenny Chuah, as its marketing director for beauty and personal care overseeing both Malaysia and Singapore.

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