KARACHI: Junaid Murtaza has been appointed L’Oréal Pakistan managing director replacing Musharraf Hai who has joined Khaadi as a consultant. The change of guards took place on 1st July 2019 but was announced on Tuesday.
It is strange that a lady who had served as chairperson and CEO of Unilever Pakistan and was also the face behind the launch of L’Oreal in Pakistan has joined Khaadi, a local concern, as a consultant.
Profile of Musharraf Hai
Musharraf Hai was the first female to head Unilever operations in Pakistan which she had left to launch L’Oreal in Pakistan.
Ms. Hai, a graduate of London School of Economics and Boston University, joined the Marketing Department of Unilever Pakistan in 1983 where her major assignments were in Unilever’s Personal Care and Detergent businesses. From 1993 to 1996, she was designated to serve at Unilever Headquarters in London, where she worked for Unilever’s East Asia-Pacific and Africa/Middle East operations.
On her return to Pakistan, she was assigned to look after Unilever Pakistan’s Ice Cream Division after which she was appointed as Director for Home and Personal Care Division. Following which Ms. Hai was moved to the position of Sales Director of Unilever and on July 1, 2001, she was finally elevated and appointed as the chairman and CEO of Unilever Pakistan.
Profile of Junaid Murtaza
Junaid Murtaza, a LUMS alumnus of 2008, began his career with Unilever Pakistan and led an accelerated career path through various successful stints in Marketing & Sales.
His journey in L’Oréal began in 2013 in Pakistan, where he last held the position of Marketing Director – Consumer Products Division, bringing strong transformation and acceleration for the business and extending the reach of L’Oréal Paris and Garnier brands to the consumers of Pakistan.
In 2016, he moved to the Global L’Oréal Headquarters Paris, France as Zone Marketing Director for Pan Africa & Middle East region. Mr. Murtaza returned to Pakistan in October 2018 as the General Manager for L’Oréal Pakistan Consumer Products division. In just a span of 9 months, Mr. Murtaza succeeded the position of Country Managing Director where he is the Chief Executive for L’Oréal Pakistan subsidiary, being one of the youngest Country Managing Director in the L’Oréal world.
“Being the global leaders in beauty, L’Oréal has been able to build a strong foundation in Pakistan in the last 10 years. Our ambition is to take this further and democratize the best of beauty for the Pakistani consumer, building more Relevance, Reach and Purpose. Pakistan and our people have an immense potential to be on the global stage. Through our Brands, “Sharing Beauty With All” and “Beauty for a Better Life” platforms, we have made great inroads, and there is a huge opportunity to do more. Women Empowerment and Sustainability will be key areas of our focus,” said Mr. Murtaza.
Musharraf Hai is a disaster wherever she goes. She has been successful in her early career due to which she was elevated to the lofty position of CEO for which she wasn’t capable enough. You forgot to mention after Unilever she moved to Citibank Pakistan as country manager which was a disaster as she destroyed a well functioning bank. After that Citibank, which was immensely successful in Pakistan for half a century, curtailed its operations and was later acquired by HBL.
She got all these top roles just on the basis of being a women and all these multinationals wanted to acquire a female for the top post. It’s part of their board level mission. She happened to be at the right place at the right time, just like Sima Kamil (CEO, UBL) who also benefited a lot in this new wave of increasing diversity and hiring females at the very top.