Preeti Balwani moves to Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages as General Counsel

Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) has appointed Preeti Balwani as its General Counsel. She will be reporting to CEO Christina Ruggiero and will be based at the company’s headquarters in Bengaluru. Earlier she was working with Kraft Heinz as their General Counsel and Executive Director.

Preeti is a commercial lawyer with the experience of both in-house and private practice. She has served as a partner in law firms, prior to moving in-house.

In her career as an external counsel, Preeti has advised on several complex domestic and cross-border transactions across industries such as Life Sciences, Insurance, FMCG and Infrastructure. Her most recent M&A experience - in-house, was the sale of Kraft Heinz’s Indian business, which housed the iconic brands Complan, Nycil and Glucon-D to the Zydus Cadila group for approximately USD 700 million.

Preeti has also received recognitions by Legal Era Magazine - Star Women in Law for 2019, Conference Gorilla - Top 50 Legal & IP Lawyers in Asia and Indian National Bar Association - Woman GC of the Year for 2019.

Prior to moving in-house, Preeti served as an external counsel for Indian companies providing them legal advice on M&A, for over a decade. She has a keen interest on how digital solutions can help legal departments be more efficient and mitigate corporate risks. She is an active member of the Indian Corporate Counsel Association (ICCA), International Bar Association (IBA) and the American Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC).

Preeti has been recognized by Legal 500 in their annual publication of the GC Powerlist (India, 2018).