Balamurugan V (Balu)

Embed Mars Culture & 5 Principles to Build World Class R&D "Consumer Centric Innovation Hub (CCIH)" with Consumer Science lab (for great Consumer insights) and Pilot plant for making Delicious Chocolates & Gums. These facilities enable to drive Purpose led Innovation, Value creation & Resilience. Responsible to develop "Future leaders" for Mars Inc. A winning team - The Team of Champions

Responsible to build Future of Iced Tea with technology-led big innovations for Pepsi Lipton JV tea expertise program for Unilever to leverage technologies and product sciences to market. A Strategic Role.

Tea Technology Unit(ed). A Global Science, Technology and Processing team in Bangalore, India. A JDA between Unilever and Lipton Tea & Infusions for development & implementation of Tea technologies. Bring science and technology faster for better business realization. TTU has been run as knowledge powerhouse on science, technology, processing and end to end commercialization with a Vision to “Innovate finest infusions for the world” and Mission to “Deliver science passionately to enrich consumers lives” with a start-up culture mindset. • Build People & they build business multifold. People are our cup of Tea. Crafted values and culture to build scientific entrepreneurs. • Many first-time technologies to land in market, eg. Minion technology: cold brew teas for US and Japan business. Idea to commercialization within 9 months with savings of 2 USD per Kg. • Landed many technologies in India, Kenya & Turkey OTIF-Q with high value creation for the business. • Driven steercom and stakeholder management bw Unilever and Lipton T&I for smooth conduct of the program and people. • More than 15+ patents during the tenure and all are highly business viable for profitability and growth. • Long term pipeline and build ecosystem in India to implement many on-going technologies.

Tough times bring best in people. Brought in inclusive cross functions team to believe as one group with one purpose to build a bright future. Motivated, lead and develop a high performing team during difficult times. • Built UFS Tea innovation strategy – R&D perspective roadmap. • Established on trend workstreams established such as TT10 team, Health & wellness platform, No story No sale that was essential for future business growth.

Global Science & Technology Team for Tea Be a transformational leader to bring in business acumen and outcome focused. Been a talent catalyst to develop passion for high performance. Initiated new future programs such as • Team 45 –Fortification of Tea with 5 Micro-nutrients. A Big global platform program for Tea. Our Vision is to address the deficiency of micro-nutrients for a healthy nation. Uniqueness in solving Vitamins issue. Cracked Zinc and Iron fortification challenge. First of the kind in the world of Tea. • Team Honey - Green Tea for Every Palate. Our vision is to make healthy green tea palatable for everyone and for every occasion. Exceptional consumer insight uncovered. • Team Avengers: Discover thyself. Inspire people to do what they would have not imagined possible. One of the best works to bring entrepreneurial and global mindset for their self-growth. Encouraged the team to do the extraordinary & exceptional teamwork

R&D Leader for Tea - South Asia (India, Pak, Bangla, SL & Nepal) Innovations/ Renovations: Product is Hero: R&D Leader on WIMI (Winning in Many Indias) projects. India • Right consumer preferred blends at the Right price for a local taste preference to win deep & profitably. • Build roadmap & implemented WIMI in regions eg., 3R in TN & AP, Taaza Punjab, RL A & B blends. • Recent notable work on Pakistan BB supreme Natural care, eg. faster innovation, new way doing business. • 8 Qtr innovation plans in action & strategic planning for landing Technologies. • Recent 2018-19 launches on Core & Future core such as Lipton after lunch -savory green tea, Ayurvedic Decaf teas (women’s health), Lipton Matcha, Tea house teas & Gifting and many in past. • Many launches in Tea e-com channel spaces (9 black tea formats and 7 milk tea formats) • Tea technologies implementation Long term Savings Prgm Money Saved is Money Earned. Led the South Asia Tea team to raise the bar and achieve things which were never thought earlier. Vital to land 5S projects on time to enhance margin. • Consistent delivery of savings program in SA Tea from 2013 to 2018. Build long term savings roadmap. • Deliverables ensured to move up the SA Tea margins up by 1000 bps • Achieved by challenging the status-quo & belief of traditional way of tea blending. • Done by impactful & smart influencing to align all the SC, SM & Mkt cross functional Directors on time. • Many new initiatives for First time in India and has global scale incl new Tech prgm for bigger savings Claims Prgm • Green tea penetration in India was very low. Challenge was on HUL to grow this new segment. • Compelling claims and delicious green tea increased the green tea penetration and mkt leadership • Claims roadmaps for Black tea (Tea good for health) & Natural care teas

Coffee - Product Development and Process Development Product & Process Design - Doubled Coffee Business in the tenure with best innovative products and technologies. • Notable contribution was to introduce 3-way aroma generation process. 3 Aromas optimized to consumer preferences. • Design, installation and commissioning of aroma generation, recovery & concentration (Distillation) unit. • Capacity enhancement: Doubled capacity with min/no capex. • Bru instant winning mix relaunch (10+% Volume growth) in the market beating competition. • Introduced new coffee brands with product & process development, such as Bru Gold, Bru Exotic, Bru Select, Bru world cafe & Bru lite.