Braunsperger heads Hero MotoCorp tech team
Date: 13 Oct 2014
Hero MotoCorp Ltd. (HMCL) has
appointed internationally-acclaimed automotive technology expert Dr. Markus
Braunsperger as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). This move builds on Hero’s
vision to further augment its world-class technology capabilities through the
best of global talent, global alliances and state-of-the-art infrastructure.
Dr. Braunsperger, who joins
Hero MotoCorp as the CTO, comes from BMW, Germany where he spent 25 years in
various roles covering the entire gamut of R&D, production and corporate
strategy. Amongst other things, he led the entire R&D function for BMW
motorcycles for several years and spearheaded the engineering division. During
his term at BMW, he executed the largest implantation of new motorcycle models
ever at the company. He was also the Head of BMW’s big model line including
4-wheeler models such as 5, 6 & 7 series cars & X3, X4, X5 and X6 SUVs.
Announcing this, Pawan Munjal,
Vice Chairman, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Hero MotoCorp
Ltd, said “We have taken immense strides in building our in-house R&D
capabilities over the past three years.
We have also significantly scaled up our technology know-how by building
a team of highly-skilled engineers and designers from all over the world, and
used alliances with leading global technology and design firms to imbibe world
class best practices and processes. I am pleased that Markus will now lead our
efforts to take our R&D capabilities to an even higher level. With his
wealth of domain expertise and global experience, Markus is going to play an
integral role in leading Hero’s multi-location R&D eco-system.”
Dr. Markus Braunsperger, Chief
Technology Officer, Hero MotoCorp Ltd, said, “This is the beginning of an
exciting new chapter for me. Pawanji’s passion and vision for Hero convinced me
to accept this opportunity to lead R&D at the world’s largest two-wheeler
firm at a very interesting point of time in its evolution. Pawanji has a clear
vision for Hero MotoCorp and all of us at the R&D team are very excited to
deliver on that commitment. Hero already has lined-up a range of exciting new
products for the next few years, and I am going to work closely with the team
to keep up the momentum and keep developing winning products for every market
around the world that we enter.”
Harjeet Singh, who has given
able leadership to the R&D function at Hero MotoCorp for past several
years, will now be the Head of newly-created Global Regulatory function, reporting
into Munjal. Additionally, he will also be in-charge of project completion of
the world class Hero Centre for Global Innovation and Research & Design at
Kukas, on the outskirts of Jaipur in Rajasthan.
Dr. Braunsperger, a Master of
Science & Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of
Munich, has rich experience of excellence in business and product development,
leading cross-functional teams, and delivering strong and sustainable gains for
one of the world’s leading global brands: BMW. He also achieved extensive
expertise and success in streamlining R&D and production processes as well
as restructuring management to reduce costs while safeguarding consistency and
improving profitability and quality.
Hero MotoCorp has in a short
span of time built up a strong team of design and engineering professionals
from around the world. The company last year brought in Mr. Markus Feichtner to
lead the newly-created division of “Engine Design & Development”. Mr.
Feichtner came from the globally-renowned engine specialists,
Austria-headquartered AVL, where he was the Executive Director of AVL’s India
Technical Centre, based out of Gurgaon.