Diageo India has appointed Chinmay Sharma as Chief Human Resources Officer, effective 5 March 2026. Sharma joins as a member of the company’s Executive Committee, succeeding Shilpa Vaid, who moves to the role of Regional HR Director, APAC and Global Travel at Diageo.
Sharma brings more than 22 years of cross-border HR experience across leading multinationals, with expertise spanning talent strategy, organisational transformation and capability building. His career has taken him across India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, giving him a depth of multi-market exposure that is relatively rare in the function. He joins from GSK, where he spent over five years – first as CHRO and Executive Vice President – Human Resources, India, before being elevated in July 2025 to HR Business Leader, Performance Emerging Markets, based in London.
Prior to GSK, Sharma spent over eight years at Philip Morris International, progressing through a sequence of increasingly senior mandates. He began as Country Head, Human Resources for India, Nepal and Bangladesh, before moving to Head of Talent Acquisition for Asia, then Director of Human Resources for Hong Kong, Macau and the Asia headquarters. He subsequently held director-level roles overseeing Reduced Risk Products and, latterly, People and Culture for Malaysia. That trajectory across geographies and business units reflects both the breadth of his functional remit and his ability to operate in complex, regulated environments.
Sharma began his career at Procter & Gamble, where he spent just over eight years. He joined in 2003 as an HR Analyst and progressed through roles including Assistant Manager for Compensation and Benefits across Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, Manager of Talent Practice, Manager of Human Resources and, finally, Senior Manager – Human Resources for the company’s CBD sales function. He is an alumnus of Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development.
Diageo India, listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange as United Spirits Limited, is among India’s leading beverage alcohol companies. Headquartered in Bengaluru, it operates one of the largest manufacturing footprints in the sector, with 36 facilities across India. The company’s portfolio spans more than 80 brands, including Johnnie Walker, Black Dog, Black & White, Signature, Royal Challenge, McDowell’s No.1, Smirnoff and Captain Morgan, with nine brands selling more than a million cases annually.
The business is at a pivotal point in its growth trajectory. For the quarter ended September 2025, consolidated net sales rose 11.6 per cent year-on-year to ₹3,173 crore, with the Prestige & Above segment accounting for nearly 90 per cent of total sales. In Q3 FY26, the company posted a 24.7 per cent increase in profit after tax, with gross margin expanding to 46.2 per cent – an improvement of 219 basis points – driven by premiumisation-led mix enhancement and productivity gains.
Underpinning that commercial momentum is an organisation investing in its people architecture. Women now comprise 30 per cent of the leadership team and 50 per cent of the Executive Committee, with the company working towards a 50 per cent leadership representation target. Sharma’s appointment signals continued commitment to building the leadership bench at a time when talent strategy is increasingly viewed as central to sustaining competitive advantage in the alcobev sector.
In a statement on his appointment, Sharma said he looks forward to “strengthening capability, deepening culture, and enabling our people to do the best work of their lives” as part of the India Executive Committee and the Global HR Leadership Team. His return to India after a period based in London brings both global strategic perspective and direct experience of leading HR through periods of significant business transformation – qualities well-suited to a company navigating premiumisation, regulatory complexity and portfolio expansion simultaneously.
