Maruti Suzuki has announced that R S Kalsi will take over as head of domestic marketing and sales following the resignation of Mayank Pareek.

Kalsi is currently executive director, and heads the Parts, Accessories and Outbound Logistics divisions while Shashank Srivastava, executive director, will continue to head international marketing. Both Kalsi and Srivastava will report to managing director, Kenichi Ayukawa.

Ayukawa said, “Kalsi has served as our national sales head before which he had led Maruti’s foray into several businesses including Maruti Finance and Maruti True Value. Starting out as an engineer on the Maruti shopfloor, Kalsi has performed multiple roles. This has enabled him to develop a sound understanding of the business, and a deep commitment to our values. With Kalsi heading our domestic marketing and sales efforts, and Shashank spearheading our international operations, we will be in a very good position to move towards our medium term goal of two million annual vehicles sales.”  

Kalsi, a mechanical engineer by training, joined Maruti in 1984. He takes over at a time when the auto industry, which has been through a slowdown for the last 18 months, is experiencing an uptick of sorts. The company will launch the Ciaz sedan in early October. In recent months, Maruti has been able to develop markets in small towns and rural areas for some of its products.