Opening minds: Leena Nair

Leena Nair
40, Exec. Director, HR, Hindustan Unilever
(Number of times in BT's Most Powerful list: 4)

Biggest achievement in 2010: Transforming the work culture and mindsets Being a powerful woman is important because: It is about influencing change and knowing that you can make a difference Tip for work-life balance: Engage your family in your career path A workplace without women is: Very boring

It is a warm and welcome change when you enter Hindustan Unilever's new, sprawling work campus spread over 7 lakh sq. ft. in Mumbai's western suburbs. You can walk "the street"- a stretch of open space flanked by a Bru Caf, Kwality Walls and Kissan juice counters, a Knorr kitchen, a Lakme salon and a convenience store.

The catalyst for this change: Leena Nair, Executive Director who leads human resources at HUL. "The new workplace has a closer connect between employees and HUL brands. We are a younger company and feel and sound informal," says Nair. It is easy to believe her.
-Anusha Subramanian

The 30 Most Powerful Women
1. Schauna Chauhan 2. Zarin Daruwala 3. Lynn de Souza 4. Tanya Dubash 5. Shyamala Gopinath 6. Vinita Gupta 7. Kaku Nakhate 8. Vedika Bhandarkar 9. Manisha Girotra 10. Lalita Gupte 11. Usha Narayanan 12. Akhila Srinivasan 13. Leena Nair 14. Vinita Bali 15. Chanda Kochhar	16. Roopa Kudva 17. Naina Lal Kidwai 18. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw 19. Zarina Mehta 20. Zia Mody 21. Kalpana Morparia 22. Vishakha Mulye 23. Swati Piramal 24. Meher Pudumjee 25. Madhabi Puri Buch 26. Chitra Ramkrishna 27. Preetha Reddy 28. Shikha Sharma 29. Mallika Srinivasan 30. Sangeeta Talwar