Mahindra Rebuilds Auto Leadership Around Sales and EVs

Mahindra & Mahindra is redrawing the reporting lines of its automotive business from April 1, 2027, and the new chart runs through two people. R Velusamy, President of the Automotive Business, takes direct reports from product planning, manufacturing operations and the Nagpur greenfield project. Shuchi Suri reports to him as Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, with vehicle sales, marketing, customer care, charging infrastructure and the accessories business under her brief.

The changes come from internal announcements dated November 5, 2026. They move the current automotive chief executive out of the car business entirely: Nalinikanth Gollagunta, whose remit covered manufacturing, sales, marketing and customer care, becomes Executive Vice President & Head of Corporate Development in Worli, reporting to Group CEO and Managing Director Anish Shah. Shah said the group would identify a "potentially significant new growth opportunity that merits focused evaluation," and he asked Gollagunta to lead its evaluation and development.

Suri's appointment is an import from consumer goods. She is currently Executive Vice President for Mahindra Experiences and joined the group in May 2026 after more than 22 years at Unilever, where she was most recently Global Vice President for Homecare. "She will lead Sales, Marketing, Customer Care, Charging Infrastructure and Accessories Business," Velusamy said in his announcement to employees — a brief that puts the selling of electric SUVs and the building of their charging network in the same office.

The layer under Suri shows how deliberate that pairing is. Pavan Kumar will oversee sales, customer care and customer experience for passenger and commercial vehicles. Reeti Nageshri, who previously led business operations and strategy at Mahindra Electric Automobile Ltd (MEAL), will head marketing and specialist sales for electric SUVs. Anoop Kachhara, appointed to lead EV charging infrastructure in January 2026 with a reporting line to Gollagunta, now reports to Suri instead.

The model ranges get named owners, too. Neha Anand will lead marketing for the XUV 7XO and XUV 3XO, Amrita Ramanathan for the Thar and Scorpio, and Mahesh Kulkarni for the Bolero and light commercial vehicles below 3.5 tonnes. Mohit Vini leads accessories, and Sailesh Sahu oversees strategic sales and operations planning analytics. The marketing services role — consumer insights, media buying, PR, CRM and digital — is listed as vacant.

The electric subsidiary keeps a foot in both camps. Velusamy is also Managing Director of MEAL. Its sales head, Deepak Sinha, will report to both Nageshri and Kumar, and Kumar continues to oversee MEAL's customer care and dealer operations, including dealer financing, dealership infrastructure, network expansion and compliance. MEAL's product planning, finance and HR leads get dual reporting lines to their counterparts in the wider automotive business.

On the industrial side, everything now lands on Velusamy's desk. Jogindra Shetti, who heads SUV product planning, and Satish Karandikar, who leads commercial vehicle product planning, report directly to him, as do Vinay Khanolkar, who will lead the Nagpur project through the start of production, and Nasir Deshmukh, who continues to lead automotive manufacturing operations. Executive Director Rajesh Jejurikar said the manufacturing plans include adding capacity at existing sites alongside developing the Nagpur greenfield — and from April 2027, one executive answers for all of it.