Hero MotoCorp announced the appointment of Dr. Arun Jaura as Chief Technology Officer. He will report directly to Dr. Pawan Munjal, Chairman and CEO, Hero MotoCorp. Also, the company announced the resignation of Neerja Sharma as Company Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer.
Dr. Arun Jaura, an accomplished engineering and technology expert with considerable experience of over four decades in global markets across multiple continents, has been appointed as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to lead the extensive Research & Development (R&D) ecosystem of the company, the statement said.
Vikram Kasbekar, who has been leading the R&D function at Hero MotoCorp at a very crucial time over the past two and half years, will support Arun for a seamless transition and continue to work on some key assignments in the coming months, according to the company’s statement.
Before joining Hero MotoCorp, Dr. Jaura was the Managing Director of Michelin India Technology Center since 2017, where he managed the R&D and the sustainability functions, and also represented the Michelin Pune site of more than 1100 engineers and technologists.
He started his career with DRDO (Defense Research and Development Organization) in 1982 where he spent a decade developing servo & electrohydraulic weapon systems as well as hydro-pneumatic suspension systems for battle tanks besides working on subsystems of the Combat aircrafts. He moved to Canada in 1992 to pursue a Ph.D. focused on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence for Smart manufacturing.
In 1996, he joined Ford Motor Co in Dearborn, USA where he managed several Hybrid technology pilot programs. He also led and developed the world’s first ever Hydrogen-Hybrid vehicle working in partnership with the Department of Energy in the US.
In 2005, Dr. Jaura returned to India to join Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) as Senior Vice President – Product Development for Automotive Sector and subsequently as the CTO. In his next assignment as Head of the Engineering Center for Eaton Corporation in Pune, he grew the capability and competency of the technical center while managing activities, and relationships with Eaton’s Industrial global business locations and eventually became Vice President (Technology). He has also had an entrepreneurial stint as well where he established TRAKTION, a mobility-focused consulting company in 2013.
Dr. Jaura is an M Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (1989-1991) and a Ph.D. from Concordia University (1992-1996), Montreal. He has been one of the founding members of Government’s National Mission of Electric Mobility since January 2013. He has also been working with stakeholders in India’s Hydrogen journey.
“Meanwhile, Neerja Sharma, Company Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer at Hero MotoCorp, has decided to take a pause and refresh her priorities. She has decided to move on and will be leaving the organization at the end of this month. Whilst with Hero MotoCorp, Neerja made a significant contribution in her role, including many other areas of the Company’s business – in particular Corporate Governance and Diversity & Inclusion,” the company said.
