Mahindra-Ford venture set to name Anurag Mehrotra as Chief Executive

Mumbai: Anurag Mehrotra, a key architect of Ford India's alliance with Mahindra & Mahindra, is set to take over as the chief executive of their joint venture on April 1.

Mehrotra, as the managing director of Ford India, was responsible for turning around the maker of the Figo and Eco-Sport that posted a profit in fiscal 2018 after remaining in the red for years. He will join Mahindra that owns a 51% stake in Mahindra Ford Automotive before formally taking over the as the JV’s CEO. In an internal announcement made on Wednesday, Mahindra also said its chief of powertrain engineering and business development, Pankaj Sonalkar, would become the chief operating officer of the JV.

Already, Ford India's sourcing head, Raghu Veeraraghavan, has joined Mahindra as the head of strategic sourcing and he would steer sourcing for a nine-product portfolio being planned by the partners. Mehrotra will be reporting to Mahindra managing director Pawan Geonka and the JV’s board that will have equal representation from the two partners. Sonalkar will oversee manufacturing, purchasing, product development and quality and will report into Mehrotra.