Nokia snares HLL’s Devendra Kishore as marketing head

 CHENNAI: If you are looking for a marketing man, raid the country’s largest fast moving consumer goods company Hindustan Lever.

That continues to be the motto of not only new companies, but even for those sprucing up operations. Now that Finnish handset giant Nokia has opened its first manufacturing facility in Sriperumbudur, it is beefing up its sales and marketing team.

After hiring D Shivakumar, president Philips Electronics, as the vice-president and general manager in charge of mobile phones, it has now signed on Devendra Kishore from HLL as the head of marketing for mobile phones. Kishore, 43, who has been with HLL for nearly 16 years, was the vice-president of foods.

Like most Leverites, he has done the entire rotation of moving from various categories including soaps and detergents.  Even Shivakumar was a HLL veteran who came in from Lipton. More recently, another HLL food veteran Gurinder Kapoor joined Reliance retail.