Ankush Arora to become president of Nissan's India operations

Joins growing list of auto MNCs with Indian at the helm

More global automobile majors seem to feel the need to have an Indian or a person of Indian origin in leadership roles.

Japanese automobile major Nissan is hiring Ankush Arora, who has worked with Tata Motors and General Motors (GM), as its India president.

Arora will be joining Nissan from Egypt’s Mansour Group, where he spent almost three years as chief operating officer. The latter has interests in automotives, capital markets and consumer goods. Prior to Mansour, he spent more than a year as senior vice-president (passenger vehicle business unit) at Tata Motors. Before joining Tata, he’d worked with GM for 17 years and looked after marketing and sales.

In his role as the president of Nissan, Arora is likely to be based out of Chennai, to look after the manufacturing and export operations. A Nissan spokesperson would not confirm or deny the news. Arora will replace Guillaume Sicard, whose tenure ends later this month. Sicard, who took charge as president in October 2014, will become the vice-president (sales and marketing) at Renault Asia Pacific.

Nissan, which had a share of less than two per cent in the Indian car market, aims to reach five per cent by 2020.

More global automobile makers are bringing in Indians or those with an Indian connect at leadership positions. In February, German luxury car maker BMW appointed an Indian, Vikram Pawah, as its president. BMW’s acting president in India, Frank Schloeder, returned to headquarters to become head of business steering-luxury class.

Audi, another German luxury car maker, appointed Rahil Ansari as head of its India operations. Ansari is a person of Indian origin. Joe King, whom he replaced, moved to headquarters in Germany after spending three years as head of the Indian business. Ansari said in an interaction that Audi had made it clear they needed someone of Indian origin, who's been here and knows Indian buyers and their culture. Ansari was here in 2011-2013, looking after development of dealerships.

SAIC, formerly Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corporation, has got Rajeev Chaba, former managing director of GM India, for its India foray. Chaba is tipped to become SAIC's country head in India. An India representative of SAIC had confirmed that Chaba was on board but did not specify his role. Chaba’s recent role was as the operations head of Man Capital in the UK. He’d earlier served as managing director of GM in North Africa and Egypt. 

American car maker Ford’s Indian arm is headless for 10 months and is learnt to have interviewed a number of Indian candidates to find a replacement to former managing director Nigel Harris, who’s moved to China to head the company’s joint venture there.

Amit Kaushik, managing director for Detroit- based automobile consultancy Urban Science in India, said having someone with the right local experience as head enhanced growth prospects. India is slated to emerge as the third biggest car market by 2020, from fifth position now.