Retailers Association of India appoints Bijou Kurien as Chairman

NEW DELHI: Retailers Association of India (RAI) on Tuesday said retail industry veteran Bijou Kurien has been appointed as its Chairman.
The Board of Directors of RAI at its meeting held on September 30, 2020, also appointed Kulin Lalbhai, Executive Director, Arvind Ltd as the Vice Chairman, RAI said in a statement.

Kurien takes over from B S Nagesh, who led RAI as the founding chairman for over 15 years since inception.

Commenting on the appointments, Nagesh said "we have decided to hand over the reins of RAI to new hands. This combination of Bijou as the Chairman, Kulin as the Vice Chairman and Kumar Rajagopalan as the CEO will add tremendously to the work already done in the industry during COVID-19 times."

He further said, "with Kulin joining, we get a young leader with omni experience who represents the second generation of businesses."

Kurien is a veteran of Indian retail industry with over 35 years of experience, having worked with the likes of Hindustan Unilever Ltd and Titan Industries, where he helped build brands in the Watch and Jewellery Industry like Titan, Fastrack, Sonata, Tanishq etc.

He also had a stint with Reliance Retail. Currently, he is an independent consultant and member of the Strategic Advisory Board of L Catterton Asia (a part of the LVMH Group). He is also an Independent Director on several listed and unlisted companies, RAI said.

Lalbhai, on the other hand has been instrumental in setting up several new retail concepts and also spearheads Arvind group's digital initiatives, it added.