Starting 1 April 2025, Sunil Kakkar will be the first home-grown member of Maruti Suzuki India’s (MSIL) staff, to be nominated as a whole-time director on the company’s board. Kakkar will be designated as director (corporate planning), while presently he is serving as senior executive officer (corporate planning).
He was nominated by Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC), which holds the majority shares in MSIL.
Presently, the board comprises four Indian independent directors, along with six Japanese and Chairman RC Bhargava. Sunil Kakkar will be the sixth Indian on the board now.
Kakkar will serve as whole-time director till 31 March 2028.
Clearly Maruti Suzuki India is very important to Suzuki Motor Corporation’s business, globally.
While the current CEO and MD of MSIL is Hisashi Takeuchi, earlier this year, Toshihiro Suzukim president, SMC, had reportedly indicated that nationality did not matter when it came to considering someone for the CEO or any other leadership position of MSIL.
Kakkar has been with MSIL for over 34 years. He joined as senior general manager in 1990. In 2008, he was elevated to assistant vice president-supply chain. By 2014, he had become the plant head-(Gurgaon vehicle plant). From 2016 to 2018 he served as executive officer and within three years became senior executive officer. His contribution towards localising supply chains and forming joint ventures with Italian, French and Japanese firms for tech advancements is tremendously valued.
He is an alumnus of IIT-Kanpur Sunil Kakkar also holds a master’s degree in technology (industrial engineering and management) from Asian Institute of Technology.
