In January 2004, he moved from being Chairman of Unilever Indonesia to a regional role in the Unilever Asia Business Group based in Singapore as Senior Vice President - Development & Environmental Affairs. In January 2005, he assumed additional responsibility as Chairman of Unilever's US$2.5 billion Home & Oral Care business in Asia. Today, Nihal is a Director of DBS Group & Bank, DBS Foundation Limited, StarHub, OLAM, GSK Pharma India, and Chairman of Caraway Pte Ltd. He was appointed to the Advisory Board of Bain & Company for SEA/Indonesia from August 2013, and was appointed a member of the Global Corporate Resilience Advisory Council of McKinsey effective January 2018. He is a member of the Governing Board of Bombay Mothers & Children Welfare Society and a Member of the Private Sector Portfolio Advisory Committee in India of the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID).