With over 2 decades of experience, Umesh is a veteran of the beautycare business in Asia. His expertise ranges from distributor start-up, channel management & trade marketing to regional category strategy & brand activation on large regional brands. An engineer and MBA by training, Umesh is also an active trainer for leadership, coaching and change management. He has been with L’Oreal for almost 12 years, having spent 5 years as Managing Director of Thailand, 6 years as President Director for Indonesia & now as the Chief Transformation Officer for SAPMENA region. In Indonesia Umesh & his talented team transformed the business towards digital and e-commerce from 2016 to 2022. These shifts were instrumental in delivering record market shares especially during the pandemic. L’Oreal is today the #2 beautycare company in Indonesia with more than a quarter of the business from e-commerce and has been one of the fastest growing players for the past several years. In 2021, Umesh was named one of the Top 10 CEOs of the year by SWA Magazine. L’Oreal Indonesia has also won several awards for Best Place to Work and is seen as a talent magnet.
Umesh is married to Aditi & they have 2 children Shriya & Abhimanyu & 2 dogs Biscuit & Gatty. Umesh is also an active traveler, photographer & enthusiastic chef. He prides himself on having explored exotic locations like Iran, Uzbekistan, Mongolia. Madagascar, Antarctica & North Korea. With the world re-opening, he’s now planning his next adventure somewhere along the Silk Route.