Mahindra & Mahindra is preparing a significant change in its leadership team. Nalinikanth Gollagunta, who has been heading the company’s automotive division, will move into a group-level role to evaluate a potential new business opportunity. The change takes effect on April 1, 2027.
Gollagunta will become Executive Vice-President and Head of Corporate Development. He will work from Mahindra’s Worli office in Mumbai and report directly to Group CEO and Managing Director Dr Anish Shah. His assignment is not to launch another SUV or expand an existing dealership network. It is to examine whether Mahindra can build a meaningful new business beyond its established growth plans.
This is an internal move, not the hiring of a new executive. Gollagunta joined Mahindra in April 2023 and took charge as CEO of its automotive division at a time when the company was building on the success of the Scorpio-N, Thar and XUV700 while preparing a much larger electric SUV push.
Mahindra has not disclosed which industry or business it is considering. There is no announced investment, acquisition, partner or launch date for this possible venture. What the company has explained is how it intends to judge an opportunity before committing money to it.
Anish Shah has said Mahindra will enter a new area only if it has a genuine advantage over competitors, can build the business to a meaningful size and can earn returns better than the industry average. The group also wants confidence that it can execute the plan well. These are the filters Gollagunta’s new role will have to apply.
That distinction matters. Assigning a senior executive to investigate a new business is not the same as approving that business. Mahindra could spend time assessing several ideas and decide that none meets its requirements. For now, this is a signal of intent rather than a new product or investment announcement.
Mahindra’s existing automotive operations are hardly short of work. In the July-September 2026 quarter, its automotive business reported a 55% increase in consolidated profit after tax. The company held a 24.3% share of the SUV market by revenue, while its electric SUVs accounted for a 30.1% revenue share of their category. These are revenue-based market-share figures, not unit-sales shares.
Across the wider group, consolidated revenue rose 25% to Rs 57,553 crore, while profit after tax increased 25% to Rs 4,588 crore. Strong SUV demand has also brought a practical challenge: Mahindra has been operating close to its available production capacity, with unusually lean dealer stocks on several models. More launches and capacity additions are already being planned.
In other words, the automotive business must keep growing, but Mahindra is also looking for a separate long-term engine of growth. Its group already spans tractors, financial services, information technology, logistics and several other businesses. The new corporate development assignment is about identifying where another large opportunity might fit, not changing the company’s immediate SUV strategy.
The leadership changes are being made in stages. R Velusamy is President of Mahindra’s Automotive Business and also heads Mahindra Electric Automobile Limited. Meanwhile, Shuchi Suri, currently Executive Vice-President, Mahindra Experiences, will become Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for the automotive business from April 1, 2027.
Suri will handle sales, marketing, customer care, charging infrastructure and accessories, and will report to Velusamy. That puts her in charge of several functions that directly affect vehicle buyers, from showroom experience to support for electric vehicle charging. Her appointment, however, is to the sales and marketing position; it should not be confused with the automotive division CEO role currently held by Gollagunta.
Mahindra has not named a direct replacement for Gollagunta as automotive division CEO. Velusamy’s existing role and Suri’s appointment clarify parts of the structure, but the company has not said whether Gollagunta’s present CEO designation will be retained or reassigned.
Gollagunta has more than 22 years of experience across India, Southeast Asia and the United States. Before Mahindra, he held roles at General Electric, Cisco, McKinsey and Texas Instruments. His background in running businesses across different markets is relevant to a job that involves weighing opportunities, not simply running a single product line.