Sanjay Bhan, returns to Hero MotoCorp as the Head of Global Business (GB) and will play a key role in the rapid expansion and consolidation of Hero in the international markets. Sanjay will lead GB at Hero from October 1, 2020.
Bhan could not be reached for comments, but industry sources confirmed his return to the Hero MotoCorp fold.
Sanjay had quit Hero MotoCorp last year as the head of domestic operations to join SoftBank backed ride-hailing firm OLA as Ola Electric’s chief business officer (CBO). One of the senior most executives of the Indian automobile industry, Bhan’s exit in less than a year from Ola Electric was a big jolt for the start-up firm.Now for Sanjay Bhan it’s more of a homecoming as he has spent large part of his illustrious career with Hero MotoCorp and was instrumental in carving the domestic strategy after the exit of Japanese partner Honda Motor Company. The Hero Honda joint-venture ended in 2010, and both the companies separated into independent operations and continue to lead the world’s largest two wheeler market, with Hero as the segment leader followed by Honda’s local entity HMSI is the second largest.
Sanjay Bhan had headed the marketing role after the separation and had initiated a meticulously successful campaign ‘Hum Main Hai Hero’ that helped the company to consolidate its independent operations and increase its market share in India.
In the effort to drive growth, Hero, the world’s largest manufacturer of two wheelers also announced a series of appointments to strengthen its ‘Leadership Team’ to drive growth in the emerging business climate.
Air Chief Marshal (Retd.) BS Dhanoa has been appointed as a Non-Executive and Independent Director on the Board of the Company, effective October 1, 2020.Recipient of the Param Vishist Seva Medal (PVSM), he served as the 25th Chief of the Indian Air Force from January 1, 2017 to September 30, 2019. Prior to that, he headed various sub-committees at the Tri-Service level within the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and was the ex-Officio Board Member of Defence Public Sector Units such as the Bharat Dynamics Ltd. He also served as the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.
The company also strengthened the leadership teams in the ‘Plant Operations’ by appointing new plant Heads and elevating young talent from within, effective December 1, 2020. These appointments come close on the heels of the first phase of the streamlining process initiated in the month of July, with the objective of creating a bench strength of future leaders. Ravi Pisipaty, the head of three plants and the Global Parts Centre, was appointed the Head of Plant Operations, while Mahesh Kaikini, the Head of Gurugram plant, was appointed Chief Quality Officer.
Earlier the company had elevated Rajat Bhargava, formerly Head of Strategy, Global Business and Emerging Mobility Business Unit (EMBU) - into the newly created Chief of Staff role in the office of Chairman and CEO, while Malo Le Masson, who was the Head of Global Product Planning, was appointed the Head of Strategy for the company.
