Leading mobility player, Ola has announced the appointment of Rakesh Bhardwaj as Group Chief Information Officer. In this role, Rakesh will provide strategic direction to the group’s IT initiatives covering information systems, tools, security, IT infrastructure, and assets across Ola’s global operations and businesses.
Rakesh brings nearly three decades of experience in building and managing cutting-edge global IT teams and systems for some of the largest enterprises in the world. Before Ola, he held several leadership roles including being the Global CIO for Cognizant, CIO for GE Healthcare, and earlier CIO for GE Aviation and Transportation.
Rakesh’s appointment comes close on the heels of several other recent leadership hires at Ola, including N Balachandar as Ola Electric CHRO and Wayne Burgess as Ola Electric’s Head of Design last week, as the group looks to rapidly build its global leadership team to drive the next phase of growth across all its business verticals globally.
Commenting on the appointment, Bhavish Aggarwal, Chairman and Group CEO, Ola, said, “I am pleased to welcome Rakesh to our leadership team. As Ola scales up further and expands into new areas such as connected manufacturing, intelligent charging infrastructure, and a sophisticated global supply chain, having a robust IT infrastructure enabling this growth is imperative. Rakesh’s expertise in building solid technology systems and processes across a diverse set of large organizations will be instrumental in building the technology backbone that will power this growth across our businesses.”
Upon taking charge in his new role, Rakesh Bhardwaj, Group CIO, Ola said, “Ola’s mission to transition the world to sustainable mobility is compelling. It is a great opportunity to be able to contribute to this mission by building a global IT enterprise, the backbone for any high-growth tech company. I am looking forward to working with businesses to help deliver growth and superior customer experiences through world-class operational efficiencies.”
Ola is gearing up to launch the first in its range of electric scooters in the coming months. Packed with advanced innovations, the much-anticipated Ola Scooter is a tech-driven electric vehicle with industry-leading range and speed. It will offer customers best-in-class performance and experience. The electric two-wheeler will be priced aggressively to make it accessible to all and will help accelerate India’s transition to sustainable, clean, and electric mobility.
The Ola Scooter will roll out from the Ola Futurefactory which is being built at record speed in Tamil Nadu, India. The Ola Futurefactory will be the world’s largest two-wheeler factory when fully operational at 10 million-a-year capacity next year. The factory will start manufacturing the Ola Scooter as soon as its first phase of 2 million annual capacity is ready this summer.