Ola appoints Pepsico’s Vishal Kaul as Chief Operating Officer

Cab aggregator platform, Ola cabs, on Monday announced the appointment of Vishal Kaul as its Chief Operating Officer (COO). 

“As COO, Vishal will head Ola’s operations, strengthen Ola’s market leadership, expand its reach to nooks and corners of the country and widen the base of Ola's customers and driver-partner fraternity, in line with its mission to build mobility for a billion Indians,” the company said.

Kaul who was a PepsiCo veteran since 1999 was recently the General Manager of PepsiCo Foods for Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. 

“I am delighted to join Ola and be part of solving for the mobility needs for a billion Indians. Ola has redefined the mobility experience in every way for Indians in all walks of life. Bhavish, Ankit, Pranay and the entire team at Ola have built something that has immense impact on our country and what excites me even more, is the immense opportunity to build from here and create lasting national value,” Kaul said on his appointment.

While on the other hand the company’s current COO – Pranav Jivrajka, ‘Ola’s first employee,’ will be stepping down from the post.

“Pranay Jivrajka, Ola’s first employee who has been focusing on leading key strategic initiatives in recent months, has been appointed as Founding Partner and will continue to work closely with Bhavish,” the company added.

Ola that was founded in January 2011 by IIT Bombay students - Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, claimed to operate in over 100 cities and multiple categories.

“Pranay has been a partner with Ankit and me in every single brick that has been laid since inception, from 1 booking a day to over a million bookings a day now! Over the past 6-8 months Pranay has been working with me closely on many key strategic initiatives and I congratulate him on his new role as a Founding Partner. This organisational change will enable him to focus on these initiatives much more sharply,” Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO and Co-founder at Ola, said.