Citing personal reasons, Tata Motors’ Head of Commercial Vehicle Ravindra Pisharody has resigned after spending a decade with the company. 

Pisharody has submitted his resignation as Executive Director (Commercial Vehicles) and as a Director of the company and its associated companies for personal reasons, Tata Motors said in a BSE filing. 

In a separate filing to BSE, the company also said that it has appointed Executive Director Satish Borwankar to a newly created position of Chief Operating Officer. Borwankar has been appointed COO with immediate effect and his tenure of executive directorship would be extended for a period of two years from July 2017, the company said in a BSE filing.

An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Kolkata, Pisharody had worked with Castrol Ltd, a subsidiary of BP Plc, and with Philips India, in various roles before joining Tata Motors. He joined Tata Motors in 2007 as Vice-President, Sales and Marketing for CVs and was then elevated to the position of Executive Director on 21 June 2012. 

On the other hand, Borwankar started his career with Tata Motors in 1974, as a Graduate Engineer Trainee. He has been the Executive Director (Quality) since June 21, 2012. He has held various executive positions, overseeing and implementing product development, manufacturing operations, and quality control initiatives of the company’s CV business unit. A mechanical engineer from IIT, Kanpur, Borwankar has also played significant roles in setting up greenfield projects of the company.

Pisharody’s exit comes amid mounting pressure on the company’s heavy commercial vehicles business. Its CV sales grew by just 0.45% to 3,05,620 units in 2016-17. In May 2017, the company’s overall commercial vehicles sales in the domestic market were at 23,606 units, down 13% from the same month last year.