Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, January 2026 – Anjali Velayudhan Menon has started a new role as Vice President HR – Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Sibelco Group, taking on leadership responsibility for the company’s largest region. Sharing her transition, Anjali reflected on moving from 16+ years in FMCG into mining and minerals as a “leap of faith,” and noted how the opportunity to accelerate organizational, leadership, and culture transformation across Asia Pacific has been one of the most rewarding chapters of her career.
In her new role, Anjali will serve as a strategic advisor on critical people decisions, shaping culture, strengthening leadership capabilities, and enabling teams across EMEA to thrive in a dynamic environment. She will lead execution of key people processes including talent management, performance, learning, compensation, workforce planning, culture and engagement, while overseeing governance, compliance, and labor relations across the region. Anjali also highlighted how Sibelco’s leadership in glass recycling in Europe strongly aligns with her personal commitment to sustainability—making this next chapter especially meaningful.
Prior to her elevation into the EMEA portfolio, Anjali Velayudhan Menon served at Sibelco Group for over two years in regional leadership roles based in Kuala Lumpur. Most recently, she was Director HR – APAC and Global HRBP, partnering with leaders on key people decisions and driving the implementation of people strategy across Asia Pacific and selected global functions. As part of the Global HR leadership team, she also led leadership and culture transformation projects aligned to long-term business needs.
Earlier at Sibelco, she served as Director HR – APAC, where she led implementation of people strategy, policies, and practices across the region, with a strong focus on leadership and culture transformation. These roles positioned her at the center of workforce strategy, change initiatives, and capability building across diverse markets.
Before joining Sibelco, Anjali was CHRO at Dutch Lady Milk Industries Sdn Bhd (FrieslandCampina) for nearly two years, based in Kuala Lumpur. As a member of the Management Committee, she led the HR function and served as the Statutory Director for the FrieslandCampina Service Center Asia Pacific, supporting enterprise-wide people priorities and governance.
Anjali spent more than 15 years at Nestlé, taking on a series of high-impact leadership roles spanning talent, transformation, organization design, communications, and people development. As Regional Head of Talent (APAC and Sub-Saharan Africa), she built and led a culturally diverse, distributed team delivering Talent Acquisition, Assessment, Employer Branding, Talent Intelligence, DEI, leadership interventions, coaching, and capability development across three continents. Earlier, she led major transformation and change initiatives across Indochina and South Asia, spanning organization design, communications, goal alignment, engagement, and performance/talent systems. She began her HR leadership foundation at Infosys, working in global compensation policies and benefits across multiple countries.
In addition, Anjali is a Member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, reflecting her continued engagement with thought leadership and global perspectives on people and business.
Anjali Velayudhan Menon completed Executive Education in Management from London Business School (2023) and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Human Resources) from Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development (2003–2005).
About Sibelco Group
Sibelco is a global material solutions company that sources, transforms, and distributes specialty industrial minerals, including silica, clays, feldspathics, and olivine, and is also a leader in glass recycling. Operating in over 30 countries, Sibelco serves industries such as glass, ceramics, construction, coatings, polymers, and water purification, delivering materials that enable modern life and innovation. Founded in 1872, Sibelco is guided by its purpose: Material solutions advancing life, with a strong commitment to sustainability, biodiversity, and the health, safety and well-being of its employees.
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