March 28, 2013: Debashis Mitra, director (marketing & sales), Mercedes-Benz India, has resigned. A company statement said, “Mr Debashis Mitra has decided to move on in his professional career pursuit. We are in the process of deciding the succession plan. “

An engineering graduate from North Bengal University with post-graduation in management from IIM Calcutta, Mitra has been associated with the automobile industry for close to 17 years. He first joined Mitsubishi as regional manager for North India. After a five-year stint there, Mitra went to the Middle East to join Nissan’s distribution division as its sales head. He returned to India in 2002 as head (marketing) for Toyota Kirloskar Motor where over five years he oversaw the fortunes of products like the Qualis and the Innova and also helped launch the Corolla. In 2007, he took up his new assignment with Mercedes-Benz India. Since then, he has helped drive all the German carmaker’s new launches and the sales network expansion.