Mars Wrigley gets 3 women in India leadership team

Mars Wrigley India has appointed three women into its leadership team in the past one month or so, taking the gender diversity ratio at its top to 40% from zero.

The confectionary and treats major now has three women in its India leadership team of eight, officials said.

They are Richa Singh, chief financial officer, Shahine Ardeshir, director – people and organisation, and Sunita Patnaik, director – corporate affairs.


Singh has replaced Chirag Shah who has been elevated as CFO of Nature’s Bakery, a Mars business in the US while Ardeshir has replaced Hegeler Solomon who has been promoted as director – people and organisation at Mars Wrigley Asia.

“In order to unlock this value for communities, customers, and consumers, we would need an inclusive and diverse organisation,” said Kalpesh R Parmar, country general manager of Mars Wrigley India.

“It is when you think and act inclusively that the organisation thrives and succeeds,” he told ET. “Diversity is an outcome… it is about counting people, but inclusion is making people count.”

Parmar also praised Shah and Solomon for their elevation to key global positions. “Both have been strong architects in India’s growth story for Mars Wrigley,” he said.

Singh joined Mars Wrigley early this month from Niine Pvt Ltd, a startup in feminine hygiene. She has over two decades of global experience across consumer durables and FMCG companies including Philips Healthcare@Home, Philips, J&J Medical, Coca-Cola, and P&G.

Ardeshir has been working with Mars since 2012. She was associate relations lead – India, Middle East and South Asia at Mars Global Services before her promotion as director.

Patnaik joined the company in May from Facebook India. Before that she worked with other multinationals including Walmart India, Cargill India and Standard Chartered Bank.

Improving women numbers in the workforce is a key focus area for several organisations. As reported by ET earlier, Infosys, Mondelez, Public Sapient, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, PepsiCo and Tata Steel are all looking at hiring more women in the coming months.

Mars Wrigley India has around 2,000 employees including 800 permanent employees.