EXCLUSIVE!
MG Motor India is putting together a team of experienced top management executives as it prepares to break into the Indian automotive market next year. The carmaker has brought on board Gaurav Gupta, the former head of Bridgestone Indonesia and a GM veteran, as the chief commercial officer, who will be responsible for functions such as sales, service and network development at MG Motor India.
In his tenure of 20 years at GM, Gupta has held various positions in retail, marketing and product planning in India, China, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia. In fact, he was the president director at GM Indonesia for two years from August 2015 and prior to that, the managing director of General Motors Vietnam for four years from June 2011.
MG Motor India is beefing up its top management team by diligently scouting across the automotive spectrum for talent. The fact that nearly all the senior executives have an automotive background will provide the company with the necessary expertise and experience to advance quickly in the competitive Indian automotive industry. Competition is further set to intensify as two new players – Kia Motors and PSA Group – are also gearing up to enter India.
MG Motor India has recently appointed Rakesh Sidana as national sales head. Sidana was earlier AVP and operating head (Marketing & Strategy) at Honda Cars India.
Other senior level appointments from India Auto Inc include Pankaj Parkar, who has joined the company as head of dealer development in July 2017 from Audi India, where he was the sales chief. Around the same time, the carmaker also appointed Pallavi Singh as its head of marketing. Before joining MG Motor India, Singh led the marketing operations for Harley-Davidson in India.
Another senior level appointment in the works is that of Rajesh Mehrotra, who is expected to join as the head of aftersales at MG Motor India. Mehrotra has held senior positions in customer service operations and aftersales at Toyota Kirloskar and Hyundai India in the past.
These recent appointments to tap top talent clearly point that MG Motor India is hunting across the spectrum to put together an entire team in place before their first product, an SUV, is launched by the first half of 2019.
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