Sandeep Kataria, Global CEO, Bata Brands

For the first time in European footwear major Bata’s 126-year history, an Indian will lead the firm. Sandeep Kataria, 49, who is currently Bata India’s CEO, has been elevated as Global CEO of the company. Kataria takes charge as with immediate effect as the current incumbent, Alexis Nasard, is stepping down after almost five years in the role and is reportedly set to join Kantar.
Under Kataria’s leadership, Bata India doubled its profits driven by a double-digit topline growth, and ran campaigns like ‘Surprisingly Bata’, to revamp the brand’s image and project it as contemporary, targeted at younger consumers. Bata India posted a net profit of Rs 327 crore on revenues of Rs 3,053 crore in 2019-20.
Earlier, Kataria was the Country Manager for the India sub-continent, a position to which he was appointed on August 01, 2017. He joined Bata from his last assignment as Chief Commercial Officer at Vodafone India, and was based in Gurugram.
A business leader, Kataria has over 2 decades of experience in the consumer industry, covering design and deployment of business strategy, brand management and sales and marketing leadership across the developing and developed markets.
Kataria holds a Bachelor of Technology degree (Chemical Engineering) from IIT, Delhi, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur. He has lived and worked in India (Delhi and Mumbai) and UK (London).