Mahindra Overhauls Automotive Leadership Under R Velusamy Effective April 1, 2027

Power lines are shifting at Mahindra & Mahindra. Come April 1, 2027, the automaker will consolidate its entire automotive apparatus under R Velusamy, President of the Automotive Business, drawing sales, marketing, factory floors, and future factory builds into a unified command chain. The internal announcements issued on November 5 reveal a decisive flattening of leadership. Automotive division chief executive Nalinikanth Gollagunta is vacating his post to head corporate development at group headquarters in Worli, handing operational reins to Velusamy and newly elevated commercial chief Shuchi Suri.

Gollagunta had previously steered manufacturing, sales, marketing, and customer care across the automotive vertical. His reassignment puts him in direct orbit around Group CEO and Managing Director Anish Shah as Executive Vice President & Head of Corporate Development. Shah noted that the group intends to pinpoint a “potentially significant new growth opportunity that merits focused evaluation,” tasking Gollagunta with evaluating and building that undisclosed venture from the ground up.

Suri Takes the Helm of Commercial and EV Retail

Under the new structure, Shuchi Suri steps in as Chief Sales & Marketing Officer for the Automotive Business, reporting straight to Velusamy. Suri, currently Executive Vice President of Mahindra Experiences, arrived at the conglomerate in May 2026 following a 22-year tenure at consumer goods giant Unilever, where she ran the global homecare division as vice president.

Velusamy spelled out her mandate to staff without ambiguity:

The appointment bridges passenger vehicle sales with the nascent public charging network. Anoop Kachhara, who was brought in to spearhead EV charging infrastructure in January 2026 under Gollagunta, will now report directly to Suri. By hitching charging infrastructure to specialist electric vehicle sales, Mahindra is eliminating the silo separating charger rollout from showroom handoffs.

Reeti Nageshri, who previously piloted business operations and strategy inside electric arm Mahindra Electric Automobile Ltd (MEAL), steps up to run marketing and specialist sales for electric SUVs under Suri. Alongside her, Pavan Kumar will direct sales, customer care, and customer experience across both passenger cars and commercial vehicles.

Suri's bench splits brand stewardship across distinct vehicle stables:

One critical chair remains empty for now. The central marketing services portfolio—which packages consumer insights, media buying, public relations, customer relationship management, and digital engagement—is officially listed as vacant.

The MEAL Electric SUV Integration Matrix

Velusamy does double duty. Beyond leading the overarching automotive business, he serves as Managing Director of MEAL. Rather than walling off the electric unit as an independent fiefdom, the reshuffle ties it directly into the parent company's operational skeleton through an intricate dual-reporting matrix.

MEAL sales head Deepak Sinha will report simultaneously to Nageshri on EV brand strategy and to Kumar on distribution volume. Kumar will also preserve direct oversight of MEAL's customer care, network compliance, dealership infrastructure, showroom expansion, and dealer financing programs. Dual allegiances continue across back-office functions: MEAL's finance, HR, and product teams will mirror their counterparts in the main automotive division. Shruti Agarwal, head of product planning at MEAL, will answer directly to Jogindra Shetti, the executive directing SUV product planning for the wider automotive enterprise.

Manufacturing Expansion and the Nagpur Greenfield

Product planning and heavy factory execution will flow straight to Velusamy's desk without intermediate layers. Shetti will anchor SUV product architecture, while Satish Karandikar will steer commercial vehicle product planning as a direct report to Velusamy.

Big capital outlays lie behind this administrative tightening. Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director and CEO of the Auto & Farm Sector, affirmed that Mahindra's operational priority balances "adding capacity at our existing manufacturing sites" while simultaneously breaking ground on an all-new manufacturing complex in Nagpur.

Plant operations will reflect that twin track. Nasir Deshmukh retains control over existing automotive manufacturing plants, focusing on debottlenecking production lines to meet sustained domestic demand. Meanwhile, Vinay Khanolkar takes sole operational responsibility for driving the greenfield Nagpur factory from construction through to the start of commercial production. Both factory heads will report directly to Velusamy.

Market Context: The restructuring codifies a deliberate philosophy across Mahindra's empire. While competitor Tata Motors opted to formally split its commercial and passenger vehicle divisions into distinct listed companies, Mahindra leadership previously ruled out breaking apart its auto and tractor divisions. Instead, the company is centralizing capital allocation, common architecture, and factory scale under proven engineering heads like Velusamy, ensuring software-defined electric platforms and ladder-frame diesel stalwarts pull from the same supply chains.

Every piece of the new hierarchy takes effect on April 1, 2027. Between now and the transition date, the company must fill its vacant marketing services seat and execute the handover of corporate development files to Gollagunta's team in Worli.