New Delhi: Mahindra & Mahindra has announced changes in its global design organisation after Ramkripa Ananthan ended her over two-decade stint with the company as chief of design for the automotive sector in June this year.
Ramkripa’s resignation came soon after automobile designer Pratap Bose joined the Mahindra Group to head the newly-formed Mahindra Advanced Design Europe (M.A.D.E) center in the West Midlands, the UK. Till recently Bose was vice president, design at Tata Motors.
ETAuto reported about the announcement signed by Rajeshwar Tripathi, chief of people officer which read, “We announce with regret that Kripa, Chief of Design AFS, has decided to explore opportunities outside of Mahindra Group. On our request she has agreed to be with us till November 2021.”
The company has informed its employees in a notification that Ajay Saran Sharma will take over as the head of Mahindra India Design Studio (MIDS) and will be redesignated as its vice president and head. “He will continue to lead Design Program Management (DPM) of MIDS as well as Mahindra Advanced Design Europe (M.A.D.E),” a company statement said.
Alongside, Casimo Amadei has joined the company as studio director, M.A.D.E. “Casimo brings rich experience of more than 15 years in the field of design. He is an alumunus of Istituto Eurpeo di Design, Turin, and has worked in R&D and Design in organisations like Honda and Changan Automobile,” Mahindra added.
In his latest assignment, Amadei was heading Exterior Design in UK and Europe with Tata Motors. He will report to Pratap Bose, EVP and chief design officer. “The structure under Casimo shall be announced later,” the company statement said.
Ramkripa, a graduate from IDC, IIT-B and a Mechanical Engineer from BITS, Pilani, led the Mahindra TUV 300, XUV 500, KUV 100, TUV300 SUVs and the Marazzo MPV design. She was part of the team involved in designing Bolero and Scorpio.
Her resignation followed a dispute over a reported major exodus of senior and mid-level executives from the company. However, Mahindra Group had immediately denied any such mass retrenchment in the company in a BSE filing dated March 10, 2021.
In April 2021, VS Parthasarathy, president of mobility services sector and member of the group executive board ended his over two decade long association with the SUV maker.
In July, Mahesh Babu, CEO and MD of Mahindra Electric Mobility (MEML) stepped down to pursue interests outside the company. Consequently Suman Mishra, senior VP, business transformation, insight and analytics, automotive sector, took over as chief executive of MEML and chief executive designate of Last Mile Mobility business with effect from August 14.
Earlier in March 2021, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited consolidated Mahindra Electric Mobility Limited (MEML), a step-down subsidiary, into the company.
In the first week of August, Shubhabrata Saha ended his over two decade stint with Mahindra & Mahindra as the CEO of Farm Division. The company has informed that Hemant Sikka, president – farm equipment sector, Mahindra & Mahindra, will directly oversee the entire operations at the Farm division, and personally drive the entire transformation agenda across the entire value chain of the division for the current fiscal year.
Martin Murray, chief technology officer, Mahindra Electric Mobility Limited (MEML) also ended his stint with the company, following Mahesh Babu’s resignation in July as CEO and MD of the company in order to pursue interests outside the company.
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