Automotive Manufacturing Solutions India

Piyush Arora is responsible for technical planning, production, procurement and logistics. He is a member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz India and is actively involved in the companys strategy and implementation for all business.
Arora was involved in setting up the processes and systems of the company in India, including supply chain processes, outsourcing strategies and developing a vendor base for Daimler in India, both on a local and global level.

Profile to be published shortly

Michael Boneham is the President and Managing Director at Ford India. He reports directly to Joe Hinrichs, group vice president and president, Asia Pacific and Africa, Ford Motor Company.

Prior to this position, Michael was the executive director – Operations at Ford India, where he has been responsible for Product Engineering, Purchasing, Manufacturing and Quality. Michael has more than 25 years experience in the automotive industry, with comprehensive knowledge and understanding of Ford's global manufacturing and operations.

In his role, Michael is responsible for the successful and ongoing implementation of Ford Motor Company’s aggressive expansion plans in India, including launch of a new engine manufacturing facility to support local and export requirements, significant capacity expansion of the vehicle assembly facility and launch of new vehicles for the market.

Prior to his Ford India posting, Michael served as manufacturing director, Asia Pacific and Africa, based in Ford Motor Company's regional headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, where he was instrumental in driving significant capacity expansion of Ford's operations across the region. He was also responsible for the implementation of an integrated regional Quality Operating system, as well as the Ford Production System, which incorporated Ford's fully integrated manufacturing facilities and operations.

Michael has significant experience in launching key new product for the Company and has held a number of senior international manufacturing positions within Ford Motor Company, including plant manager, Powertrain Operations at Ford Australia; General Manager, Vehicle Operations at Land Rover in the UK; and plant manager of Auto Alliance International, a Ford/Mazda joint venture production facility in Michigan, USA.

Tom Chackalackal manages Ford India's integrated manufacturing facility at Maraimalai Nagar. In his previous role, he was the Asia-Pacific Group Plant Material Planning Manager responsible for effectively managing the material flow for all the Ford plants in the region and helped to improve the material flow strategy.
He joined Ford India in 1996. Chackalackal is a qualified industrial engineer and holds a diploma in Business Administration (distinction).

Jacques Foulquier has worked for Renault group since 2004, and he has been Senior Vice President for Renault's Engineering Division in India since March 2007. Prior to this he worked as Vice President of Renault's product and process engineering for worldwide chassis activities. He has obtained several patents at Renault.
Between 1993 and 2004, he worked with Michelin Company as Vice President - Chassis Department and Deputy Vice President - Tire / Vehicle Interaction Department.
He has also worked with Nacam / Lemforder Company from 1989 to 1993 as Technical Director (product and process manufacturing) for worldwide steering column Business Unit.

Dirk Gorges graduated from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany in Mechanical Engineering and Management. His career started two decades ago at Freudenberg where he worked in different management positions in the R&D department and at various business centres.
He joined Durr in 2003, and is responsible for the sales and marketing of the final assembly business unit. In addition, in 2008 he took over the sales and marketing for the paint business worldwide, for the Durr group.

Andre Hack has a B.S.c. (Hons) degree in International Technology Management from the University of Glamorgan (UK) and a Dipl.-Ing. (BA) '03 from the University of Cooperative Education in Mosbach, Germany. From 2000 - 2006 he worked in project management & technology development at EDAG & FFT EDAG and from 2006 - 2008 was Department Manager of Production Engineering at EDAG Japan Co. Ltd. His current role at SICK AG is Strategic Industry Manager of Automotive Industry Asia.

Profile to be published shortly

Luigi Lazzari is a Doctorate in Nuclear Engineering with over 20 years of experience in the field of automotive paint-shops internationally.

He has worked in all the divisions of Geico from Process to Detailed Engineering, from Research & Development to Value Engineering to reach today’s leadership position of Vice President of Innovation and Proposal Engineering.

He is also the Chairman of the Industrial Marketing Committee in Geico.

Abhijit Mukherjee is the Managing Director for Tenneco India. Tenneco employs 750 people in five manufacturing facilities that produce emission control and ride control components. These are located in Hosur, Pondicherry, Bawal, Pune and Halol. Construction of a sixth facility for exhaust manufacturing in Chennai is underway. Before assuming his current role, Mr. Mukherjee led a global SAP project, and before that he was the Finance Director for Tennecos European emission control business unit with $1.8 billion revenues and 20 manufacturing facilities.

Juergen Nolde is responsible for automotive business at the Siemens Industrial Automation and Drives Technology headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany. This is part of the worldwide Siemens Automation and Drives business.
Together with his team, Mr Nolde provides technology and international project coordination support for the Siemens Automotive team in India.

Louis Pereiras career spans 39 years in M&M across Automotive and Farm Equipment Sectors handling Design, Planning, Manufacturing and Quality. As a Senior Vice President of Central Manufacturing Engineering he is currently responsible for Projects, Manufacturing Engineering, Asset Management - Automotive Sector.

As CEO of Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Limited (MVML) he is currently overseeing the development of the Chakan Plant into a world-class manufacturing facility.
He is responsible for the smooth functioning of the Plant which will manufacture new products from Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and Mahindra Navistar Automotives Ltd.

Nitin Rajurkar has more than 27 years of experience in the automobile industry, with specialisation in manufacturing engineering. He heads the new project facility planning (ME) activities for Tata Motors Passenger Cars Unit.
Rajurkar is a pioneer in digital manufacturing initiatives in India and holds credit for several digital project achievements.

Mr. Girish M Rakhe, President at Reva Electric Car Company is a Mechanical Engineer with an MBA in finance.

Over 25+ years, he has worked with many major organisations such as MPSIDC, Uniworth Group (Indorama Group), LML, TATA, and Suzuki. Today he holds the position of President of Reva Electric Car Company, and is leading the revolution for pollution free mobility.

The automotive industry had recognized Mr Rakhe by honouring him with positions such as Vice Chairman, Vice President and Head of the Committees at a national and international level.

Qualification: Degree and Diploma in Mechanical Engineering.
Experience: Working in the automotive industry for the last 23 years. Started with Maruti Suzuki, Gurgaon and worked for over 8. Working with General Motors for the last 14 years. Managed different functions such as Brownfield and Greenfield Projects, New product launches, Shop maintenance, Utility, Safety, Environmental Management and ISO 14001. Lead role for the construction of Greenfield project at Talegaon and completed the project surpassing many benchmark in GM.

Klaus Rothenhagen has worked in the metalforming Industry for more than 30 years. After completing an apprenticeship programme, he worked in the engineering department and project department. Later as Product and Sales Manager he was responsible for press shop equipment at a German press manufacturer.
He was then promoted to Director of Sales for the company’s North American operation in Cincinnati, USA. Since 2008, he has been working as VP International Sales for AIDA Europe.

Saurabh Mohan Saxena is an engineer and MBA with more than 15 years experience in diverse business portfolios such as R&D, Engineering, Operations, Purchasing, Supply Chain, and Business Development at various automotive companies such as TATA Motors, Delphi Automotive Systems, and Ashok Leyland. Before moving to Hero Motors he was responsible for SEA purchasing operations at Chrysler LLC. Mr Saxena holds a Record of Invention for Airlift Suspension at Delphi. At Hero Motors, he is responsible for business plan formulation covering the companys vision, goals and objectives. He also visualizes and develops strategy for future business growth and heads the Hero Chassis Systems Division.

M M Singh pioneered the Maruti Production System, and spearheaded the Challenge 50 programme which has resulted in productivity and quality improvements of 50 per cent, and a cost reduction of 30 per cent.
Singh has developed a Production Management System (PMS) for the carmaker, which focuses on the involvement, and empowerment of human capital. His other projects include new plant locations, logistics optimisation, port development and the service/distribution network

Matt Seltz is the Senior Director of Sales at Zebra Enterprise Solutions for Automotive and Industrial Manufacturing.
In his 10 years with Zebra Enterprise Solutions, Matt has successfully designed and implemented complex supply chain solutions for customers within the automotive and industrial manufacturing markets that leverage auto ID and location technologies. Matt is also recognized as a domain expert with respect to process integration with these technologies. Prior to Zebra, Matt worked with Ford Motor Company in numerous material planning and logistics functions. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Math/Science at Concordia University.

Ralf Voellinger joined EISENMANN AG in 1995 and was appointed member of the Senior Management Team in 2007. Currently, he heads the Automotive Systems Division and the EISENMANN Manufacturing and Preassembly Unit. Apart from this, Mr. Voellinger oversees strategic key projects, one of which is the introduction of EISENMANN to India.

Mr. Voellinger spent 7 years in the US, managing several larger size Automotive Projects for EISENMANN and being responsible for sales in the automotive and plastic finishing market in North America. After his return to Germany he was appointed Managing Director of a subsidiary of EISENMANN before he was appointed Executive Director of EISENMANN AG.

Mr. Voellinger studied Mechanical and Environmental Engineering in Karlsruhe, Germany and Boston, USA and graduated from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.

Sarang Thathapillai studied mechanical engineering at the Malaviya National Institute of Technology in Jaipur and has spent 27 years in the passenger car industry. He worked for 14 years at Maruti Suzuki India before joining Hyundai Motor India. His areas of expertise include Quality, Production, Engineering and problem solving

Rajeev Wasan has worked in the automotive industry for virtually his whole professional career, in such areas as manufacturing, planning and quality improvement. He joined Honda Siel in 1996 as Assistant General Manager, later becoming senior general manager of the company's purchasing division at the Greator Noida Plant. Between 1999 to 2001, he was part of the purchasing office at Honda Japan. Rajeev Wasan was appointed Vice-President of Honda Siel Cars India in April 2008.