M&M rejigs leadership team as Mahindra Logistics CEO Ram Swaminathan quits

Hemant Sikka to head Mahindra Logistics, Veejay Nakra to head farm biz, R Veluswamy to head auto division

In a major shake-up, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) on Monday announced a slew of appointments in its top management across businesses after the company’s logistics business head Ram Swaminathan decided to resign from the post.

 

Swaminathan, MD & CEO of Mahindra Logistics (MLL), one of the largest logistics solution providers in the country, decided to resign to “pursue other professional interests”. Hemant Sikka, president of Farm Equipment Sector (FES), will replace Swaminathan as the additional director and MD & CEO designate of MLL from April 22. He will take over the post on May 5.

 

Veejay Nakra, who is currently president of Automotive Division, will be appointed as president of Farm Equipment Business, while R Velusamy, who is the president Automotive Technology and Product Development, will be appointed as president of the Automotive Business.

 

“These leadership changes ensure that we have strong, proven leaders at the helm of our key businesses. Their experience will enable us to drive significant growth and create greater value for our customers and shareholders,” Anish Shah, Group CEO & managing director, M&M, said.

 

Besides the top-level appointments, senior company officials said the Agri Solutions and Powerol businesses would be soon carved out of the FES vertical and would likely be made separate entities. 

 

The Mahindra Agri Solutions business headed by Ramesh Ramchandran as MD & CEO offers solutions to farmers – from seeds, to agri-chemicals to micro-irrigation solutions. The Mahindra Powerol business headed by Sanjay Jain is into the field of power generation through generator sets. It works with telecom majors like Reliance Jio, Indus Towers, etc.

 

MLL posted revenues of ₹5,506 crore in FY24, and during 9MFY25, the company posted an 11.8 per cent year-on-year rise in revenues to ₹4,535 crore.

 

Swaminathan joined MLL in July 2019 as CEO designate and was appointed as CEO in October 2019, followed by his appointment as MD & CEO in February 2020.

 

“Under Ram’s leadership, MLL has emerged as a leading integrated logistics provider in India. Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company has doubled revenues in the last four years,” M&M said in a statement. Swaminathan’s last working day at MLL would be July 20. 

 

M&M said that Sikka is one of their top leaders who brings with him a “powerful combination of strategic skills, operational rigour, customer centricity and people leadership capabilities”.

 

As the largest farm tractor company in the world by volume, Mahindra FES commands a domestic market share upwards of 43 per cent in India, with on-ground presence in the US, Japan, Turkey, Finland and Brazil, with flagship brands like Mahindra, Swaraj, and Erkunt.

 

During Sikka’s tenure, tractor market share went up by 210 basis points and FES revenue grew by over 60 per cent and profits more than doubled.

 

“With a career in our company spanning about 25 years, Sikka has held several key positions, including president and chief purchase officer of AFS, head of Purchase for SsangYong Motors, and head of Manufacturing – Mahindra Automotive Sector,” M&M said. Prior to joining Mahindra, Sikka spent 9 years with Maruti Suzuki.

 

“Veejay Nakra will be appointed as president Farm Equipment Business (FEB), which is one of our large and profitable businesses with a ROCE of over 60 per cent,” the company said. It added that there was “huge opportunity” to grow the farm business profitably through tractors, farm machinery and globalisation.

 

Nakra joined M&M in 1995 and has already charted a turnaround of the auto business with successful launches, building new manufacturing capabilities and also shaped the company’s international businesses. Nakra will continue to report to Rajesh Jejurikar, executive director and CEO (auto and farm sector) at M&M.

 

Velusamy, who now operates from Chennai, will be moving to Mumbai for this role and will be hand-held by Jejurikar during the transition period. By January, the transition is expected to be over. Velusamy joined M&M in 1996 and has been instrumental in developing several ICE flagship products and Mahindra’s Electric Vehicle portfolio. He will continue to report to Jejurikar.

 

M&M said that in order to prepare for the future with technology innovation and lead opportunities for growth in domestic as well global markets, they will now integrate the SUV and LCV (less than 3.5 tonne) business, under one leader.

 

“This would help build greater agility and collaboration, both in engineering our products and taking them to market. The role would have end-to-end responsibility of all functions within the auto business with P&L delivery,” the company added.