Apollo Tyres appoints Hizmy Hassen as chief digital officer

Apollo Tyres has appointed Hizmy Hassen to the newly created position of Chief Digital Officer. Hizmy will be based out of the company’s London office, and will be responsible for leading the strategy and operations of Apollo Tyres’ digital journey, including responsibility for Information Technology.

Commenting on Hizmy Hassen’s appointment, Neeraj Kanwar, vice- chairman and managing director, Apollo Tyres, said, “With digitalisation being a key focus area for the company, especially considering the challenges that we face today due to the global pandemic, we have created this position of Chief Digital Officer. Hizmy, who comes with 30 years of rich experience, will be the ideal person to develop and execute the future architecture roadmap and evolve the IT delivery model, through partnerships with cross-functional leaders across Apollo Tyres.”

Hizmy’s last assignment was with Coats Plc, prior to which, he was with Unilever. In over 20 years with Coats he has worked across areas of Supply Chain, Information Technology and Digital Enablement. In his last role, Hassen was globally responsible for Digital and Technology within Coats Group Plc. He is credited with transforming the global technology function at Coats, implementing a cloud strategy as well as other modern technologies to underpin digital transformation. He has pioneered digital solutions achieving very high adoption levels, leading to a total transformation of the Coats’ go-to-market strategy. He led the digitalisation of Coats’ customer facing interactions which laid the solid foundation for their sales growth and increased productivity.

Hassen drove the set-up of ‘Factory 4.0’ and with his extensive experience in supply chain management, he created a truly integrated global supply chain with SAP (ERP system), as well as advanced supply chain management systems. This helped in reduction of net working capital, significant reduction of the supply chain cost base, and at the same time improved customer service levels.

Hizmy Hassen will be reporting to Neeraj Kanwar, vice chairman and MD, Apollo Tyres Ltd. Speaking about his joining Apollo Tyres, Hizmy Hassen said, “I am excited to be a part of this dynamic and growing organisation. I believe that Apollo Tyres is already moving rapidly on the digitalisation journey; my focus would be to challenge and improve upon the existing processes and systems in the company to deliver the best business results.”

Hizmy holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Leeds, UK.