NEW DELHI: Pratt & Whitney Monday announced the appointment of Ashish Saraf as its VP & country head for India. Saraf joins PW from Thales, where he served as country director and chairman for all Thales India businesses, including aerospace & defense.
PW has been in the news in India past few years over the large number of Airbus A320 groundings of IndiGo and erstwhile GoAir due to unending engine issues. While GoAir blamed its shut down on PW engine problems, IndiGo has managed to grow despite the same even as a large part of its fleet remains grounded. PW A320 engine issues have prolonged for about 6-7 years now.
Meanwhile, Saraf takes over at a time when patience is running thin with PW engine issues. In a statement, PW said as its “senior-most in-country leader, Ashish will lead all strategic growth and transformation efforts in India. He will be responsible for the growth and alignment of Pratt & Whitney’s in-country engineering, supply chain, customer service, operations, and digital transformation centers.”
“Ashish’s wealth of expertise across profit and loss management, business transformation, and strategic partnerships will bolster our next phase of growth in-country,” said Satheeshkumar Kumarasingam, PW chief digital officer.
Ashish has over 20 years of industry and consulting experience, with an extensive background spanning the aerospace, space, defense, biometrics, and manufacturing sectors. Prior to his tenure at Thales, Ashish held several leadership roles at Airbus and the Tata-Sikorsky joint venture. He also worked at Deloitte Consulting, focusing on strategy, operations, and supply chain in the manufacturing and engineering sectors in the US and Europe.