Titan elevates Priya Mathilakath Pillai as Chief People Officer

Titan Company has appointed Priya Mathilakath Pillai as its Chief People Officer and a member of the company’s senior management, effective 1 April 2027.

Pillai will succeed Swadesh Behera, who is set to retire from the company on 31 March 2027. Titan’s board approved the appointment at its meeting held on 7 August 2026, according to the company’s regulatory disclosure.

Currently, Pillai leads Titan’s people function across its retail, corporate and manufacturing businesses. Her elevation brings an experienced internal leader to the helm of the people function as the Tata Group company continues to expand across jewellery, watches, eyewear and emerging businesses.

Pillai brings more than three decades of experience spanning human resources, sales, operations, training and e-commerce. Her career includes tenures at Taj Hotels, Unilever, Aviva Life Insurance India and Mahindra Retail.

She previously worked at Titan as Head of Training before joining Mahindra Retail, where she held leadership responsibilities across HR and e-commerce. Pillai returned to Titan in 2015 and has since contributed to culture transformation, leadership succession, diversity and inclusion, organisational redesign and capability building.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics, Sociology and Political Science from Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru, and has completed executive programmes at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and Harvard Business School.

The appointment marks a planned internal succession at Titan, providing continuity in people leadership ahead of Behera’s retirement.