First Japanese to steer carmaker

S Nakanishi will replace Khattar who is retiring on December 18

NEW DELHI: For the first time since its inception, Maruti Suzuki is going to be headed by a Japanese. Come December 18 and Jagdish Khattar will retire after an eight-year stint as managing director.

Credited with steering the company towards 50%-plus share of the domestic car market, Khattar is passing the baton to S Nakanishi, one of the longest- serving Suzuki nominees on the Maruti board.

R C Bhargava is being brought back as chairman; Bhargava has earlier served as managing director and is currently a director on the board.

Terming his tenure at Maruti as “interesting”, Khattar said he would now like to assume an entrepreneurial role.

“There are many opportunities in the country and I was feeling left out. I would now like to explore different options.”

Company sources claimed Khattar had been offered an extension at the board meeting held earlier on Monday but he declined the offer. As per Suzuki’s rules, he will reach the retirement age of 65 next month.

Explaining the rationale behind the change of guard, Suzuki Motor Corp’s Osamu Suzuki said more Indians would be promoted to higher management positions within the company.

Suzuki also announced other changes: T Kobayashi and M Osada, currently working as senior managing director and director (R&D) at Maruti are being recalled to Japan.
They would be replaced by T Ohashi and T Hasuike respectively.

While Ohashi would be in charge of production, Hasuike would look after product planning and technical divisions.