Pizza Hut International president Vipul Chawla to lead FairPrice group from April

FAIRPRICE Group (FPG) has appointed Vipul Chawla as group chief executive following a global search. Chawla joins FPG from Yum! Brands, where he will serve as the president of Pizza Hut International until Apr 1.

Seah Kian Peng, who holds the dual role of group CEO of NTUC Enterprise and group CEO of FairPrice Group, will be appointed as deputy chairman of FPG. He will also become the chairman of FairPrice Foundation - the supermarket chain's charity arm.

Both Chawla and Seah's roles are effective Apr 5, NTUC Enterprise and FPG said in a joint press statement on Thursday (Feb 17).

Seah started as NTUC FairPrice's chief operating officer in 2001 before progressing to the CEO role in 2016. In 2019, Seah was appointed group CEO of FPG when the group was formed. In the same year, he took on the additional role as group CEO of NTUC Enterprise.

Seah is also the Member of Parliament representing the Braddell Heights ward of the Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency.

Meanwhile, Chawla spent 11 years with Yum! Brands - which owns fast-food brands like Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell. Before his role as president of Pizza Hut International, he was the managing director of Pizza Hut Apac (Singapore).

Prior to Yum! Brands, Chawla was with Unilever for 18 years across various geographies. His international experience includes global coverage of over 110 countries and over 215,000 team members.

As a Singaporean, Chawla was involved with the labour movement and helped promote the talent pool in Singapore through NTUC's "U Circle of Friends" - comprising C-suite executives in regional or global roles from large MNCs.

Chawla will relocate to Singapore from Dallas, United States. His international experience will help FPG in its ambitions to build an "omnichannel business with superior customer experience", FPG said.