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Ninu Khanna quits as Dabur chief executive

Bhupesh Bhandari & Bhanu Pande

Ninu Khanna has stepped down as chief executive of Dabur India Ltd. The Dabur India board will take up the matter for consideration at its meeting scheduled for January 22.

Khanna is also expected to step down from the board of directors at that meeting. He is an executive director on the Dabur India board.

Khanna had joined Dabur India as chief executive in November 1998, after the Burmans of Dabur decided to professionalise the top management of their flagship, on a three-year contract. According to sources, the contract came to an end in November 2001.

Meanwhile, Dabur India has already started the search for a new chief executive. Sources said the company was looking internally as well as externally to select a successor for Khanna.

Khanna was also the chairman of the two-member management committee of Dabur India, the other member being P D Narang, director (corporate affairs).

According to sources, till another chief executive is found, Narang will head the committee. The management committee will co-opt two other senior company executives -- head of sales & marketing Sunil Duggal and vice-president (operations) Charanjit Mohan. Both Narang and Duggal are executive directors on the Dabur India board.

Khanna had joined Dabur India from Colgate Palmolive. He played a key role in focusing on the vision of the company as producer and marketer of natural and herbal products for personal care from the earlier vision of an ayurvedic company. He also put in motion an exercise to give the Dabur brand a more youthful image.

It was during Khanna's tenure that Dabur took a global exposure in oncology. Dabur Oncology Plc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dabur India in the UK, is currently being looked after by Dabur India vice-chairman Anand Burman.

The company has been set up to focus on the general oncology market in Europe, joint research and production of drugs in small batches for clinical research. The company, during the last financial year, had set up a cytotoxic sterile manufacturing plant for oncology formulations.

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