Now Reading: Hero MotoCorp hires 5 outsiders in biggest leadership reset since 2023
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Hero MotoCorp hires 5 outsiders in biggest leadership reset since 2023
Hero MotoCorp has appointed five senior executives from outside the two-wheeler industry over the past year, marking its biggest leadership reset since Pawan Munjal stepped down as CEO in 2023. New CEO…
Hero MotoCorp has appointed five senior executives from outside the two-wheeler industry over the past year, marking its biggest leadership reset since Pawan Munjal stepped down as CEO in 2023. New CEO Harshavardhan Chitale joined from Signify in January, while strategy officer Srihari Mulgund joined from EY-Parthenon. The company has also hired a chief technology officer from VE Commercial Vehicles, a chief business officer for EVs from Mahindra & Mahindra, and a corporate affairs head from Shell.
The moves aim to steer Hero toward electric vehicles, premium motorcycles, and exports. Hero's EV sales rose 196% to 144,330 units in FY26, while exports grew 39% to 402,744 units, according to industry data. Its overall sales grew 7% to 6.06 million units. Industry experts said the hires reflect a deliberate effort to build capabilities for the next growth phase. The new CEO noted premium products, scooters, EVs, and exports as strong growth areas.
The appointments give Hero a less established leadership team compared with rivals TVS Motor and Bajaj Auto, where top executives have spent over two decades in the two-wheeler business.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Hero is attempting to shake off its image as a mass-market commuter brand. Its rivals Bajaj and TVS have long held the premium and electric ground with stable, homegrown leadership. The risk in importing outside talent is cultural friction: past cross-industry CEO moves in Indian auto (e.g., Tata Motors' hiring from aviation) have taken years to deliver. What matters now is execution speed. Hero's EV numbers are strong, 144,330 units sold in FY26, but the premium motorcycle segment, where margins are thinnest to build, grew only 2%. The new leadership must prove it can sustain that EV growth while cracking the premium petrol market, a dual challenge its domestic rivals have not had to manage simultaneously. The next quarterly results, due in August, will show whether the outside hires are translating strategy into sales.
Source: livemint.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
