Dr Arun Jaura joins Michelin India as project director (R&D)

Autocar Professional has learnt that technocrat Dr Arun Jaura has been inducted as project director (research & development) on the board of Michelin India. He has stepped down as an independent director from the board of Gabriel India, part of the Anand Group, which had undertaken restructuring of its Board of Directors in September last year. It is 

Dr Jaura’s appointment assumes significance considering that the French tyremaker plans to set up an R&D centre in India. The facility is to come up in Gurgaon and will be Michelin's first such unit in a developing country.

Michelin India had last opened a truck tyre plant in Chennai with an investment of around Rs 4,000 crore. The plant manufactures truck radials designed and developed for the Indian market. The company is optimistic about growth in India, particularly in view of the government’s focus on building roadways and infrastructure, in turn generating demand for premium passenger car tyres.

It is also learnt that Dr Jaura, who was till now serving as MD and senior partner of the Detroit-based Traktion Management Services has offloaded his stake in the company. Dr Jaura is on the Board of Directors of SAE International, USA and chairman of SAE India Automotive Board.

Apart from these roles, Dr Jaura is also associated with various industry and government bodies like ‘Member on the Board of National Mission on Electric Mobility’ and  ‘Member of Technical Advisory Group constituted by MOHI and DST on Electric & Hybrid Mobility’, ‘CSIR Council Member for Advanced Materials and Climate Change Technologies’.

Dr Jaura was with Ford Motor Company, USA for 10 years. After his return to India, he was senior vice-president for automotive R&D and later Group CTO for the Mahindra Group. Thereafter, he led Eaton Engineering Center in Pune for 4 years.

Dr Jaura has won various prestigious awards in India and globally, like ‘2004 Henry Ford Technical Achievement Award in Detroit’. He is also a co-inventor holding five patents worldwide and has over 30 referred papers and various publications in international journals and conferences to his credit. Dr. Jaura is an M.Tech from IIT, Chennai and a Doctorate from Canada. His Ph.D thesis was also nominated from Concordia University, Montreal for 'Governor General of Canada Gold Medal'.