Manvinder Banga

Manvinder Singh Banga (born 31 October 1954 in Simla, India) is an Indian-British business leader and one of the most senior operating figures in European private equity. He earned a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi (1975, gold medalist) and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad (also a gold medalist). He is the older brother of Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group.

Banga spent 33 years at Unilever (1977–2010), rising through operational and general-management roles across Asia and globally. He was Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) from 2000 to 2005, then was elevated to the Unilever Executive Board in 2005 as President of the Global Foods division, taking on additional responsibility for Home & Personal Care in 2008. He also led Unilever's sustainability agenda.

He joined Clayton, Dubilier & Rice as a Senior/Operating Partner in London in 2010, where he focuses on Consumer/Retail, Healthcare, and Business Services investments. At CD&R he has chaired or served on the boards of major portfolio companies — Diversey, Mauser Group, Kalle, B&M Retail, and Morrisons — chairs the firm's Sustainability Council, and established CD&R's India presence through a partnership with Kedaara Capital.

Beyond CD&R, Banga holds an unusually broad slate of governance roles: he became Chair of Haleon plc on 1 January 2026 (after serving as Senior Independent Director from 2022), is Chair of the Council of Imperial College London (since April 2024), Chair of UK Government Investments (UKGI), and a Non-Executive Director of The Economist Group. Prior directorships include GlaxoSmithKline (Senior Independent Director), Marks & Spencer, Thomson Reuters, and Maruti Suzuki. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian honours, in 2010.

• Invests through CD&R's operationally intensive private-equity model: taking control positions in established businesses and driving value through management, operations, and strategic repositioning — the opposite of early-stage angel/seed investing.
• Sector concentration in consumer goods, retail, healthcare, and business services, reflecting his Unilever operating background.
• Strong emphasis on sustainability and ESG — he chairs CD&R's Sustainability Council and led Unilever's sustainability agenda.
• Focused on operational improvement and carve-outs: turning around or scaling mature companies (e.g., cleaning/hygiene, packaging, discount and grocery retail).
• Champion of India and emerging-market expansion for CD&R via the Kedaara Capital partnership.