{"id":1692438,"date":"2026-09-11T15:52:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T19:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/observer.com\/?p=1692438"},"modified":"2026-09-12T12:19:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T16:19:26","slug":"chanel-ceo-leena-nair-on-keeping-luxury-human-in-the-a-i-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/observer.com\/2026\/09\/chanel-ceo-leena-nair-on-keeping-luxury-human-in-the-a-i-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Chanel CEO Leena Nair on Keeping Luxury Human in the A.I. Era"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Leena
Leena Nair speaks onstage during the Forbes Power Women’s Summit 2026 at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Sept. 10, 2026 in New York City. Taylor Hill\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As A.I. reshapes how many luxury fashion houses operate,<\/a> Chanel Global CEO Leena Nair is betting that the lasting competitive advantage will be something technology cannot replicate: human connection.<\/p>\n

Nair\u2019s people-first approach reflects three decades spent at Unilever, most recently as the consumer goods giant\u2019s chief human resources officer. It also helped persuade Chanel\u2019s chairman and co-owner, Alain Wertheimer, to recruit an executive with no previous fashion experience. After a nine-month courtship, Nair joined the privately held luxury house as global CEO in January 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel in a world of A.I., human sense, human experience [and] human relationships are going to matter more than ever,\u201d Nair said during an onstage interview with Forbes Executive Vice President Moira Forbes at the Forbes Power Women\u2019s Summit in New York on Sept. 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, everything we do in A.I. is about enhancing human skills\u2014relentlessly protecting that which is human, and prioritizing people in this journey,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

That conviction has informed her management style. Nair said she set out to visit Chanel\u2019s factories, meet employees and learn their names. \u201cIt\u2019s really important to me. I would know not just about the names, I want to know who they are, what makes them passionate,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really putting them at the center of my efforts. If you care about the people, they will care about the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April, Nair shared during an interview with Stanford’s\u00a0View From the Top<\/em> podcast that she’d met about 20,000 employees so far. Chanel employed about 38,000 people globally at the end of 2025, including about 700 artisans at its Paris-based le19M complex, according to company disclosure.<\/p>\n

Raised in Kolhapur, India, Nair studied engineering in college and began her career as a management trainee at Hindustan Unilever in 1992. Her early career included factory and personnel roles in India. At a time when women were scarce in such roles, Nair became the first woman to work on a Hindustan Unilever factory floor and to work a night shift. She later moved through senior HR positions, becoming executive director of human resources at Hindustan Unilever in 2007 and taking on Unilever\u2019s global senior vice president role for leadership and organization development in 2013.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Nair became Unilever\u2019s chief human resources officer (CHRO) and joined its executive leadership team. She was the company\u2019s first woman and first Asian CHRO, and its youngest person to hold the position at 47. During her decade-long tenure, Unilever increased women\u2019s representation in management from 38 percent in 2010 to 50 percent in 2020.<\/p>\n

Under her leadership, women also dominate Chanel\u2019s workforce. More than 76 of Chanel’s employees and 60 percent of the leadership are women, Nair said.<\/p>\n

She also increased annual funding for Fondation Chanel, its independent charitable foundation focused on women and girls, to $100 million from $20 million. Chanel\u2019s latest results say the company maintained a $125 million annual commitment to the foundation in 2025.<\/p>\n

Last year, Chanel reported $19.3 billion in revenue and $4.7 billion in operating profit. When asked about reaching the younger generation of luxury consumers, Nair invoked industrial designer Dieter Rams\u2019s maxim to \u201cbuy less, but better.\u201d She said Gen Z already accounts for 30 percent of Chanel’s customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always say, buy beautiful things, but buy less of them,\u201d Nair said. \u201cBecause I want this to be not just for the product, I want it to be about the memories you cherish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chanel has faced scrutiny over the handling of unsold products. Recent litigation in Hong Kong alleged that the company had destroyed significant quantities of unsold luxury goods<\/a>, though Chanel disputed that the figures reflected an outdated approach. The company has said that, under its sustainability commitments, unsold products are to be managed through recycling and circularity initiatives, including L\u2019Atelier des Mati\u00e8res.<\/p>\n

Last year, Chanel published its first climate plan, with a goal of reaching net-zero emissions across its value chain by 2040. Its rival, Kering, has a 2050 net-zero goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chanel CEO Leena Nair says human connection, craftsmanship and people-first leadership will matter more as A.I. reshapes luxury.<\/p>\n Read More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":129757851,"featured_media":1692449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_issue-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","_ef_editorial_meta__first-draft-date":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"post_tag":[423987176,423867377,423806810],"company":[20872,423976496,423809965],"channel":[186,423868938,424015910],"location":[],"nyo_column":[],"person":[424019677,424019678,424019679,423983876],"nyo_post_hidden":[],"coauthors":[424018070],"class_list":{"0":"post-1692438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"tag-forbes-power-womens-summit","8":"tag-leadership","9":"tag-luxury","10":"observer_company-chanel","11":"observer_company-kering","12":"observer_company-unilever","13":"channel-business","14":"channel-media","15":"channel-all-features","16":"nyo_person-leena-nair","17":"nyo_person-alain-wertheimer","18":"nyo_person-moira-forbes","19":"nyo_person-dieter-rams"},"acf":{"homepage_position":"","homepage_title":"","homepage_excerpt":"","alternative_og_image":"","headline":{"seo_headline":""},"subheadline":{"optimized_seo_description":"","optimized_social_excerpt":""}},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/observer.com\/2026\/09\/chanel-ceo-leena-nair-on-keeping-luxury-human-in-the-a-i-era\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":[],"rendered":"","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/observer.com\/p.js"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2294585847-e1789156064336.jpg?quality=80","coauthors_byline":"By Kate Wieczorek","display_channel":"","thumbnail":"\"Leena