The world’s third largest wind energy turbine maker, Suzlon Energy, has shifted most of its management operations back to its headquarters in Pune.
Two years earlier, it had set up a Group Management Centre in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to run its global business, spanning 21 countries. Instead, Suzlon will soon inaugurate a new campus in Pune with a ‘world class work environment’ for about 2,500 employees, named ‘Suzlon One Earth’. This Centre will act as the new global headquarters and the hub for its operations worldwide, said sources.
In the past 12 months, most of the 25-plus top executives who were operating from the Centre in Amsterdam have moved to the current corporate offices in Pune. The exit of some senior non-Indian management professionals also forced Suzlon to operate from India, since their replacements were India-based professionals, they added.
“The Group Management Centre in Amsterdam is still operational and is an important part of our global operations,” said an executive.
That Centre currently houses only certain sections of human resources management and research and development. However, Suzlon’s marketing operations in Europe continue to be coordinated from Aarhus, Denmark, said sources. Suzlon did not respond to an e-mail questionnaire.
Tulsi R Tanti, chairman and managing director, had told Business Standard in January last year that while the corporate headquarters would remain in Pune, the global business would span out from Amsterdam, since that offered locational and operational advantages for Suzlon’s business. Europe is the largest market for wind energy players, as it generates half of the total global wind power.
Suzlon’s acquisition of Belgium-based Hansen Transmissions in 2006 and German wind turbine maker REpower a year later had also had prompted it to operate out of Amsterdam. Proximity to the manufacturing, research and development facilities of Hansen and REpower were the other reasons cited for moving the main operations to Amsterdam. Suzlon and its subsidiaries have manufacturing and R&D facilities in India, Germany, Belgium, China and the US.
Following the acquisitions in Europe, Suzlon had brought in former General Electric senior executive Andre Horbach as chief executive officer (CEO) in January 2007 and Patrick Krahenbuhl from ABB as group chief financial officer (CFO).
Both were operating from Amsterdam. But, Patrick left the company in March last year and Andre Horbach two months later, at a time when Suzlon’s rotor blades started cracking at many customer locations in the US.
In August last year, Suzlon brought in Sumant Sinha, former chief executive of Aditya Birla Retail, as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Patrick was replaced with Robin Banerjee as Group CFO. They are operating from Mumbai and Pune since their appointment, said sources.
In December last year, Suzlon re-jigged the top management responsibilities and Tulsi Tanti, who mainly operates from Pune, took direct charge of operations. He divided the role of CEO between himself and Sumant Sinha. Toine van Megen, who had replaced Andre Horbach as CEO of Suzlon’s wind energy business, was entrusted with supervisory responsibilities at the group level
Sinha now has an expanded role as COO and handles the day-to-day operational management of Suzlon’s wind energy business, mainly from his office in Mumbai.
Sources said the recently recruited top executives are also operating from Pune. Suzlon is undertaking a series of cost and operational improvement initiatives with the help of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and has recently hired John O’Halloran, former executive director of engineering at Cummins as President–Technology. It has brought in former Ford India president and managing director Arvind Mathew as president, Nacelle manufacturing, and Nicholas Archer from Edelman as head of its global public relations, replacing Vivek Kher, who was mainly operating from Amsterdam.
