01 · About
Thirty years, one discipline: the body of the vehicle.
I have spent thirty years in the automobile industry, twenty-five of them leading vehicle programmes and Centres of Competence. My work sits in the structures you touch and the surfaces you see: BIW, load bodies, closures, glass, sealing, mechanisms, exteriors, interiors, cockpits, seating and restraints. I have taken vehicles from a clean sheet to the line at Mahindra & Mahindra and now at Tata Motors, and I still believe the best engineering is the kind a customer never has to think about.
- Product Development
- Program Management
- Project Planning
- 25 years
- Leading vehicle programmes and Centres of Competence
- 1.5 years
- Manufacturing Engineering
- 3.5 years
- Body (sheet metal) production
- 1 year
- Central Quality Assurance
Impact in numbers
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30
Years in the automobile industry
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25
Years leading vehicle programmes
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6
Vehicle programmes shown here
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1
Patent for an impact-absorbing structure
02 · Selected work
The vehicles.
Six programmes, six sets of body systems. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys to bring one into the light.
Vehicle 01 / 06
Mahindra Maxx
MUV · 9/10-seat station wagon
Launched 2001
A nine-seat workhorse built to carry families and goods on one body, and to be repaired anywhere.
03 · Career
Thirty years, two companies.
Forward from 1994: body systems at Mahindra & Mahindra, then Body & Trims for commercial vehicles at Tata Motors.
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Aug 1994 to Feb 2012 17 years 7 months
DGM, Product Development (Body Systems)
Mahindra & Mahindra
Head of Department for the design and development of body systems across Mahindra's range, building the capability behind Maxx, Bolero XL, Xylo and Maxximo.
Roles within this tenure
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1999 to 2000 1 year
Senior Engineer, Central Quality Assurance
Nashik
Managed NOVA-C, manufacturing audits, launch sampling and quality planning for body manufacturing.
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2002 to 2004 2 years
Manager, Vehicle Engineering
Designed, developed and implemented the Bolero XL and XLS, and shaped the first concept for what became the Xylo.
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Feb 2012 to Feb 2014 2 years 1 month
DGM, Projects (Product Development)
Mahindra & Mahindra, Automotive Sector · Mahindra World City, Chennai
Project leader for the Mahindra Jeeto, taking a new mini-truck platform from programme definition to launch with the Chennai product development team.
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Feb 2014 to Present 12 years 9 months
General Manager (Body & Trims Engg.)
Tata Motors · Pune
Leads the Centre of Competence for Body & Trims in commercial vehicles at Tata Motors, owning body engineering capability, delivery and standards across programmes.
04 · Patent
Impact Absorbing Structure for Vehicles
A body structure that takes the energy of an impact before it reaches the cabin: the quiet, early work of passive safety, done in sheet metal.
05 · Credentials
Continued study.
Certifications
- Fundamentals of AI & ML: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
- Inside Agentic AI: Foundations and Frontiers
- Becoming a DEI Ally and Agent for Change
- Modern Systems Engineering: Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE)
- Workplace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Action
Education
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B.E., Machine Tools Engineering
K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering, University of Mumbai
1991 to 1994
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M.B.A., Materials Management
NIMS, Pune University
1996 to 1998