Aasif Malbari takes helm at Godrej Consumer Products, brings Africa turnaround playbook to top job

Godrej Consumer Products has appointed Aasif Malbari as its managing director and chief executive officer, bringing the company’s global chief financial officer and Africa business head into the top job as it looks to accelerate growth in its core businesses and build new categories.

Malbari’s appointment is effective immediately and he succeeds Sudhir Sitapati, who is stepping down as MD and CEO after five years at the helm.

The move puts an executive with three decades of experience across FMCG and automobiles in charge of a company that serves more than 1.4 billion consumers across 85 countries. GCPL reported revenues of about $1.6 billion and had a market capitalisation of $11 billion as of March 31, 2026.

Malbari’s track record in Africa is likely to be central to his new mandate. During his tenure, GCPL’s Africa business expanded its margin accretive FMCG portfolio, including through the launch of its air care category, while also strengthening its legacy Hair Fashion business. The transformation helped lift EBITDA margins from around 9% in FY24 to about 15% in FY26.

The new CEO has also been closely involved in GCPL’s broader strategy in his role as Global CFO, where he worked with leadership teams across geographies on growth and performance. Before joining GCPL, Malbari was CFO of Tata Passenger Electric Mobility and a director at Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles. He was involved in scaling and reorganising the business and in a $1 billion fundraise for its electric vehicle business. Earlier, he held finance and business roles at Hindustan Unilever.

Nisaba Godrej, executive chairperson of GCPL, said Malbari brings a “deep command of GCPL’s strategic and operating rhythm” and that his experience in transforming the Africa business represents the kind of “ambitious, disciplined execution rigour” the company needs for its next phase.

“He has also led an outstanding transformation of our Africa business and I believe it's exactly the kind of ambitious, disciplined execution rigour GCPL needs across all our businesses for our next chapter. Aasif leads with humility and integrity, and the Board and I have complete confidence in him to accelerate GCPL's growth alongside our very strong team,” she said. 

She also thanked Sitapati for the “bold thinking” he brought to GCPL over the past five years.

For Malbari, the immediate focus will be on improving performance in GCPL’s established categories while finding new avenues for growth. “Our fantastic team and I are committed to meeting their high expectations; elevating performance in our core while accelerating new category growth,” he said. He added that the company has “significant category development opportunities ahead of us”.

Malbari is a Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary and secured the All India First Rank in both the CA Intermediate and Final examinations. GCPL operates across home, personal, hair and air care categories and has positioned category development as a key part of its emerging markets strategy.