China-based Evoke Electric Motorcycles, a leading electric motorcycle and smart communication EV technologies company, has announced that Dr Makarand Jawadekar has joined the Advisory Board. It maybe recollected that in April 2019 Autocar Professional had broken the news about Evoke Motorcycles plans to enter India with an electric bike.

Dr Jawadekar has received his PhD (Pharmaceutics) from the University of Minnesota in 1982, and had worked with Pfizer for 28 consecutive years. He opted for an early retirement in 2010; he was a Director, Portfolio Management and also served as a V.P. of APAG Colleague Resource Group (CRG).

During his career at Pfizer, he has held several senior roles and has helped create various Pharma R&D partnerships, JVs, and collaborations. Since 2010, he has been serving on many Advisory positions an Board of a few companies. In 2006, he accompanied US President George W. Bush on his trip to India.

In February 2018, Dr. Jawadekar worked with Tonino Lamborghini, chairman, Tonino Lamborghini, Italy in creating strategic collaborations in India.

Commenting on the announcement, Sebastian Chrobok, COO, Evoke Electric Motorcycles said: “This collaboration is the key to Evoke Motorcycles sustainable growth and future success around the world. We have been intensifying local research and development, as well as local production, to highlight the preferences of our customers here and abroad. We highly value Dr. Makarand Jawadekar (Mak) capabilities and are very honoured to have him on board.”

What’s interesting to note is that, while the geo-political situation between India-China remains strained, there still remains optimism for Chinese OEMs to look at establishing their presence in India. With Dr. Jawadekar on board, the possibility for Evoke Motorcycles to revisit its decision to enter India looks quite significant.