Mumbai: Honasa Consumer Ltd. (HCL), the parent company of brands such as Mamaearth, The Derma Co., Aqualogica, and Ayuga, has announced that its board now comprises 50 per cent independent board members. The appointment of independent directors on the board is extremely significant to ensure that the board considers the interests of shareholders foremost. It is likely to support independent decision-making and moderate conflicting views and opinions by board members in favour of the shareholders.
The board of Honasa Consumer Ltd. comprises six members, namely, Ghazal Alagh, Varun Alagh, Ishaan Mittal, Vivek Gambhir, Namita Gupta, and Subramaniam Somasundaram. Out of these, Ghazal and Varun Alagh are co-founders of the company, and Mittal is a nominee of Sequoia Capital on the board of HCL. Gambhir, Gupta, and Somasundaram are independent board members who have decades of experience in FMCG and the e-commerce marketplace; hence, the understanding, evaluation, and mentoring imparted by the board on HCL’s plans and performance are extremely pivotal in charting the way forward for the organization.
Gambhir holds a bachelor’s degree in arts and a bachelor’s degree in science from Lafayette College, Pennsylvania. Further, he holds a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He has been associated with Honasa as a director since 24 March 2021. Previously, he has worked with Bain & Company India Pvt Ltd for a period of over 11 years, where he was last associated as a partner, and with Godrej Consumer Products Ltd for a period of over 11 years, where he was last associated as a full-time director. He has previously been the co-chair of the Confederation of Indian Industry, National FMCG Committee and served as the president of the Harvard Business School Club of India.
Gupta holds a master’s degree in technology in mathematics and computing from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. She has been associated with Honasa as a director since 8 June. Previously, she worked with Microsoft Corp. She has also worked with Facebook Inc. for a period of over five years, where she was last associated as a partner engineer. Further, she has also served as an independent director on the board of directors at Zomato Ltd. since 1 March 2021 and is the founder and currently on the board of directors of Airveda Technologies Pvt Ltd.
Somasundaram holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Madras, Madras, and is a chartered accountant and cost accountant. Previously, he was the chief financial officer for Titan Company Ltd. for a decade. During his association with Titan, he was also on the board of its subsidiaries, like Caratlane Trading Pvt. Ltd. and Titan Engineering and Automation Ltd. Currently, he is also an independent director on the boards of Teamlease Services Ltd., Avanti Finance Pvt Ltd., API Holdings Ltd., Landmark Retail FZE (Dubai), and Innoviti Technologies Pvt Ltd. He has worked in the telecom industry for over 11 years as well, as the chief financial officer for BPL Mobile Group and CEO for BPL Mobile operations in Mumbai, and as the chief financial officer of the telecom vertical in Essar Group in its foray into Africa. He has also worked earlier in his career with ITC Ltd., VST Industries Ltd. in India, and Mannai Corporation Ltd. in Qatar.
These independent board members will be part of the statutory committee, audit committee, nomination and remuneration committee, stakeholder committee, and other committees where the independent directors may constitute more than 65 per cent to ensure compliance with all parameters of corporate governance measures like transparency, control measures, et al.
Commenting on this, Honasa Consumer Ltd. co-founder and CEO Varun Alagh said, "An independent board is critical for any organisation for unbiased decision making. In the past, we have been fortunate to have such experienced individuals on the board of Honasa Consumer Ltd. Our board members have helped keep checks and balances in place to ensure we take calculated risks and mitigate tough situations."
Honasa Consumer Ltd. chief financial officer Ramanpreet Sohi said, "In order to maintain governance checks and balances and ensure transparency and control measures, companies appoint independent board members. Over the last five years, Honasa Consumer has witnessed fast-paced growth. While the statutory requirement is 33 per cent of independent board members, we have opted to keep 50 per cent of our board as independent board members, to ensure readiness for the future. They have been instrumental in ensuring strict checkpoints through our work over the years."
