Mahindra & Mahindra is redrawing the reporting lines of its automotive business from April 1, 2027, under R Velusamy, President of the Automotive Business. Shuchi Suri will report to Velusamy as Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Automotive Business, as automotive division CEO Nalinikanth Gollagunta moves to group corporate development.
The November 5 internal announcements say the heads of SUV and commercial vehicle product planning, manufacturing operations and the Nagpur greenfield project will also report directly to Velusamy. Gollagunta, whose automotive remit covered manufacturing, sales, marketing and customer care, will take charge as Executive Vice President & Head of Corporate Development in Worli, reporting to Group CEO and Managing Director Anish Shah.
Shah said the group would identify a “potentially significant new growth opportunity that merits focused evaluation” and asked Gollagunta to lead its evaluation and development.
Sales, marketing and charging under Suri
Suri, currently Executive Vice President, Mahindra Experiences, joined the group in May 2026 after more than 22 years at Unilever, where she was most recently Global Vice President for Homecare.
“She will lead Sales, Marketing, Customer Care, Charging Infrastructure and Accessories Business,” Velusamy said in his announcement to employees.
Pavan Kumar will oversee sales, customer care and customer experience for passenger and commercial vehicles. Reeti Nageshri, who previously led business operations and strategy at Mahindra Electric Automobile Ltd (MEAL), will head marketing and specialist sales for electric SUVs. Both will report to Suri.
Anoop Kachhara, who was appointed to lead EV charging infrastructure in January 2026 with a reporting line to Gollagunta, will now report to Suri. The change puts charging infrastructure and specialist electric SUV sales under the same executive.
Neha Anand will lead marketing for the XUV 7XO and XUV 3XO, AmritaRamanathan for the Thar and Scorpio, and Mahesh Kulkarni for the Bolero and light commercial vehicles below 3.5 tonnes. Mohit Vini will lead accessories, while Sailesh Sahu will oversee strategic sales and operations planning analytics. The marketing services role, covering consumer insights, media buying, PR, CRM and digital, is listed as vacant.
How the EV subsidiary fits in
Velusamy is also Managing Director of MEAL. The subsidiary’s sales head, Deepak Sinha, will report to both Nageshri and Kumar. Kumar will continue to oversee MEAL’s customer care and dealer operations, including dealer financing, dealership infrastructure, network expansion and compliance.
MEAL’s product planning, finance and HR leads will have dual reporting lines to their counterparts in the wider automotive business. Shruti Agarwal, who leads product planning at MEAL, will also report to Jogindra Shetti, who heads SUV product planning for the wider automotive business.
Product Planning and Nagpur Report Directly to Velusamy
Shetti and Satish Karandikar, who leads commercial vehicle product planning, will report directly to Velusamy.
Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director and CEO of the Auto & Farm Sector, said the company’s manufacturing plans include “adding capacity at our existing manufacturing sites” alongside developing the Greenfield site in Nagpur.
Vinay Khanolkar will lead the Nagpur project through the start of production, while Nasir Deshmukh will continue to lead automotive manufacturing operations. Both will report directly to Velusamy.