New Delhi: It comes as a great surprise that a native Indian worker has been nominated as a full-time director to the board of Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL). Sunil Kakkar, who has been in charge of the corporate planning section, was announced as the new director of Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC), on 26 March.
There are now 11 members on the MSIL board, including six Japanese and five Indians. Four of the Indian members are independent directors, and the fifth is chairman R C Bhargava. Six Indians and six Japanese will now be equally represented on the board following Kakkar’s appointment.
In January, when asked in Delhi, whether an Indian could become the CEO of MSIL, SMC president Toshihiro Suzuki had stated that it was entirely possible, as “nationality is not a factor” in such appointments. Currently, Hisashi Takeuchi serves as MSIL’s managing director and CEO.
Kakkar will serve as director full-time from 1 April of this year until 31 March 2028. His appointment highlights MSIL’s increasing strategic significance in SMC’s international operations.
He has previously held important leadership positions at MSIL, such as plant head of the Gurgaon operations and head of the supply chain vertical.
He was instrumental in the localization of supply chains and the establishment of joint ventures with businesses in France, Italy and Japan for the development of high-tensile sheet metal, plastic fuel tanks, and AMT (automated manual transmission) technology.
A gold medalist MBA graduate of the Asian Institute of Technology and a graduate of IIT Kanpur, he also sits on the boards of MSIL’s affiliated businesses and trade associations like Siam and Assocham.
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