Mumbai: The board of Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) announced today that Asif Malbari, currently the company’s Global Chief Financial Officer and President of Godrej Africa, has been appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect. He succeeds Sudhir Sitapati, who is stepping down from the role.
Malbari brings roughly three decades of experience across the FMCG and auto industries, having held roles at GCPL, Tata Motors, and Hindustan Unilever. As Global CFO, he has overseen business strategy directly and worked closely with leadership teams across regions to drive growth and strengthen performance. He is credited with a notable turnaround of GCPL’s Africa business, where the FMCG portfolio was expanded aggressively — highlighted by a highly successful push into the air-care category — alongside a strengthened traditional hair-fashion business. That work helped lift EBITDA margins in the Africa business from around 9% in FY24 to roughly 15% in FY26.
Before joining GCPL, Malbari served as Chief Financial Officer at Tata Passenger Electric Mobility and as a Director at Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, where he played a central role in scaling the business, including restructuring the organization and helping raise $1 billion in funding for the electric vehicle business. Earlier in his career, he held various finance and business roles at Hindustan Unilever. Malbari is a Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary, and secured the All India first rank in both the CA Intermediate and Final examinations.
GCPL Executive Chairperson Nisaba Godrej said Malbari’s tenure as Global CFO has given him a deep understanding of the company’s strategic and operational workings, and pointed to the turnaround he led in the Africa business as evidence of the kind of disciplined, ambitious execution she wants to see replicated across GCPL going forward. She described his leadership style as humble and grounded, and said she and the board were confident he would help accelerate the company’s growth alongside its leadership team. She also thanked Sitapati for his bold, forward-looking leadership over the past five years and wished him well in his future endeavors.
Malbari, in turn, called GCPL a company long associated with trust, innovation, and courage, and said he was grateful to Godrej and the board for entrusting him with carrying that legacy forward. He said he and the team were committed to living up to those expectations — sharpening performance in the company’s core businesses while accelerating growth in newer categories — and pointed to the strength of GCPL’s brands and the opportunities ahead for category growth. He added that he was excited to be starting this new chapter.
