Nivea appoints Neil George MD, India

Nivea India, the subsidiary of Beiersdorf AG, Germany has appointed Neil George as the new Managing Director for India. Outgoing MD, Rakshit Hargave who is credited with having rejuvenated the Nivea brand in India, was last year promoted to Senior VP, India, Sub Sahara Africa & Head Sales Beiersdorf Near East, based out of Dubai. George will be based out of Mumbai.
George has over 20 years of FMCG experience with P&G, Reckitt Benckiser, Diversey and in the last 5 years, been with Beiersdorf in varied senior marketing roles. After having worked in various locations starting with Delhi to Dubai, Jeddah, London, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, he now comes back to India. His last stint with Nivea was at the German multinational’s Dubai office as the Vice President, in charge of Near East.
“The India I left in the late 90s and the India of today are two vastly different and rapidly evolving skincare and beauty markets”, says George. “The attractive demographics of the country coupled with growing incomes of the emerging middle class and an extremely stable and reform focused Government make India one of the most exciting markets for Nivea to play. And the biggest added bonus is a well educated and ambitious pool of young Indians who will help take our relatively young company to greater heights in India”.
Interestingly, Neil has recently self-published his comic book titled ‘Building the Perfect Beast: What Really Happens in Brand Management’. ‘The title is also about what happens to both brands and brand managers – both start life as pure, naïve beings, but end up as beasts’ says George.
A Kochi boy who studied Hotel Management in Mumbai, George holds two MBAs – one from SPJIMR, Mumbai and another from the London Business School. A football aficionado (he is a die-hard Arsenal fan), Neil loves wine regions as a true connoisseur should and without apology, is an avid comic books fan. Music too finds place in his life.