Hero Motocorp Ltd, the country’s biggest two-wheeler maker, added five new senior leaders over the last year, including a chief executive officer (CEO) from outside the two-wheeler industry. The new leadership changes are being seen in the industry as an attempt by the Delhi-based firm to reset.
The appointments mark Hero's biggest reset of its senior leadership since Pawan Munjal stepped down as CEO in May 2023 to become the executive chairman, as the company shifts its growth priorities towards electric vehicles and premium motorcycles.
Hero MotoCorp's new chief executive, Harshavardhan Chitale, joined from lighting solutions brand Signify in January after an 11-year stint at the firm, while the new strategy officer, Srihari Mulgund, whose appointment was announced last week, joins from consulting firm EY-Parthenon, where he worked on the electric vehicle value chain.
Moreover, Hero’s chief technology officer, Sachin Agarwal, joined in May from the Volvo-Eicher joint venture VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd, after a 14-year stint at the firm, following a previous stint at Daewoo Motors India. The company’s chief business officer for the emerging mobility business unit, Kausalya Nandakumar, joined in July 2025 from carmaker Mahindra and Mahindra, where she was the chief operating officer of the group’s EV unit. The company’s head of corporate affairs, Latika Taneja, joined in August from oil firm Shell with a previous stint at credit card firm Mastercard.
Experts said that the unorthodox hiring strategy reflects Hero's attempt to bring in capabilities and perspectives from outside the traditional two-wheeler industry as it looks to build new growth engines beyond its dominance in the mass-market motorcycle segment.
Automotive hires from outside the sector are strategic moves to import key capabilities, not just wider talent searches, Amit Dakshini, senior leader of Automotive at Alvarez & Marsal India, a corporate advisory firm, said.
“It's a deliberate move to import a capability the sector can't yet grow from within, whether that's software, semiconductors, AI or resilient supply chains. But an outside hire only pays off when that fresh expertise is paired with genuine industry depth and a clear fit to the task at hand,” he added.
Over the past year, Hero’s electric vehicle sales and exports have increased rapidly. According to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (Fada) data, Hero’s EV sales rose 196% to 144,330 in the financial year 2026. Hero’s exports grew 39% year-on-year to 402,744 in FY2026, according to Society of Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) data.
Its premium motorcycle range, above 125cc engine capacity, saw 2% growth to 73,739 units, with the company now ramping up focus on the segment. Its overall sales grew 7% to reach 6.06 million units.
Compared to Hero, its rivals currently have a more stable management in place. For instance, TVS chief executive K.N. Radhakrishnan has been with the firm for over two decades, having been elevated to chief executive in 2018 after becoming president in 2008.
Bajaj Auto’s managing director, Rajiv Bajaj, has been with the firm for over two decades, while joint managing director Rakesh Sharma has spent over 18 years.
The heads of the EV divisions at both companies, Aniruddha Haldar at TVS and Eric Vas at Bajaj Auto, have been with the firms for more than 14 years.
Chitale is Hero’s second chief executive officer in less than three years, as the two-wheeler maker looks to stabilise the top leadership. In his first earnings call in February, the new chief executive noted that he considers premium products, scooters, electric vehicles, and exports to be areas of strong growth potential for the company.
“It appears less like a routine leadership reshuffle and more like capability-building for the next phase of growth,” Amit Kaushik, founder of Mobidx Ai, a New Delhi-based automotive-focused intelligence and analytics firm, said.
“Hero MotoCorp’s leadership choices point to a deliberate effort to bring diverse, cross-industry capabilities into the organisation,” he said.
Ayaan Kartik is a Delhi-based journalist tracking the ever-growing world of automobiles and their components. With an experience of five years ranging from short-form news at Inshorts to longform journalism at Outlook Business magazine, he has dabbled into different storytelling formats. At Mint, he tries to regularly mix story styles, from longforms to crisp news stories. He has completed his graduation from Delhi University where he developed a liking for reading and writing about the world we live in today. Apart from automobiles, Ayaan likes to read up on geopolitics which has increasingly affected various sectors of the economy. Of all the promises journalism holds, he likes the fact that it allows a person to simply explain to readers about what is happening in the world. And what better sector than automobiles, which everyone since growing up has seen and felt connected to. Whether it is China's increasing grip on automobiles to growing affection for EVs in the country, Ayaan likes to connect his love for geopolitics and data to his stories as readers become more demanding on the types of stories they want.
