Faraz Zaidi to Lead HR Transformation at Unilever

Faraz Zaidi has been named Head of HR for Global Customer Operations at Unilever, a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, UK.

Through this role, Faraz will lead the global people agenda for Customer Operations, giving a specific focus to transforming talent and culture at the company.

By working closely with senior management, Faraz will help to align talent, capability and organisational culture with Unilever’s top priorities. 

He will oversee the strategic alignment of personnel and structure, ensuring the organisation is equipped to handle any transformations and peak operational efficiency.

This move is said to strengthen the organisational capability for the global giant, whose brands – such as Dove, Knorr and Vaseline – serve 3.4 billion people daily. 

Drive productivity and organisational design

Having been at Unilever for more than 15 years, Faraz’s promotion to oversee HR demonstrates a strategy for Unilever to shift toward merging people strategy with operational performance. 

By taking the role, Faraz will drive productivity and organisational design, ensuring the HR function effectively fuels execution across all international markets and channels.

In placing him at the centre of decision-making on workforce structure and capability building, Unilever is highlighting its plans to continue its evolution of its operating model.

Taking to LinkedIn, Faraz said: “I’m really pleased to share that I’ve started a new chapter as Head of HR – Global Customer Operations at Unilever.

“Customer Operations is such a critical and fast‑moving part of our business, and I’m genuinely excited to work alongside Graham Sommer and the incredible leadership team to support our people, strengthen our culture and continue building an organisation that’s ready for what’s next.

“I’m grateful to Richard Sharp for his constant support and challenge – enabling me to land this opportunity, and to Juan Carlos Parada for a very fulfilling stint in GBS. I’m also incredibly proud of the teams I worked with in GBS every day — your commitment, resilience and energy make this work meaningful.”

Who is Unilever’s Faraz Zaidi?

During his decade and a half at Unilever, Faraz has held a number of different roles, which have provided a range of global, regional and country-level experience. 

Faraz most recently held the position of HR Director for Global Business Services, which involved leading Unilever’s HR team across multiple service lines.

With a track record of leading teams of more than 2,500 employees, as well as complex transformation programmes, Faraz previously served as HR Director across Uniops and NAMET Supply Chain. 

His expertise spans technology-driven people experiences and organisational restructuring, as he also served as the Global Employee Experience Lead. In this role, he was instrumental in scaling employee feedback systems and launching the Experience Lab framework. 

Before joining Unilever, Faraz started his career at MCB Bank and IAL Saatchi & Saatchi. 

Holding an MBA in HR, his new appointment highlights Unilever’s drive to align workforce strategy with transformation.