After a long and successful stint of over 14 years with Boeing, Ankur Kanaglekar has joined Thales as vice president, India.
Kanaglekar, who obtained a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1998, is also an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
The initial years of his career were spent working as a software engineer with Altair Engineering, based out of Michigan,US.
He relocated to Bangalore, India, to work as a project manager with ESI Group, from 2004 to 2006.
His next stop was i2 Technologies, as delivery manager, managing a team of supply-chain consultants—to provide technical support for maintaining demand forecast solutions for global clients—from 2006 to 2007.
May of 2008 saw Ankur Kanaglekar take up the role of manager, PRTM Management Consultants, based out of Bangalore.
Kanaglekar’s association with Boeing began in July of 2011, as country manager (India), industrial participation and strategic partnerships. Five and a half years into this role he was elevated to head-strategy and business development. Another promotion in 2018 made him head of India fighters sale. Over three years later he was promoted to head of international business-development strategy. From April 2023 to August 2025, he served as head-global co-development, Boeing.
Now, at Thales—an advanced technologies company that caters to the defence, aerospace, and cyber and digital sectors— Ankur Kanaglekar will help reinforce the company’s commitment to nation building and the Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision. He will oversee Thales’ strategy and operations in India, focusing on scaling up industrial collaboration, reinforcing local innovation and engineering capabilities, and delivering advanced solutions across defence, aerospace and cyber and digital markets.
Pascale Sourisse, president & CEO, Thales International, is banking on Kanaglekar’s “proven leadership and deep understanding of the Indian market” to “further enhance our support of the country’s ambitious self-reliance objectives, co-develop cutting-edge solutions and nurture local talent”.
Ankur Kanaglekar himself is looking forward to “working closely with our partners, teams, and other stakeholders to accelerate growth, deepen localisation, and make a meaningful contribution to nation building, supporting India’s technological ambitions and self-reliance journey”.