Ex-M&M MD Pawan Goenka appointed chairperson of In-SPACe

Dr. Pawan Goenka

Former managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra Pawan Kumar Goenka has been appointed as the chairperson of Indian National Space Promotion Authorization Centre (In-SPACe), CNBC TV 18 reported on September 11.

IN-SPACe functions as an independent nodal agency under the Department of Space, Government of India.

Goenka's appointment at the helm of the space agency was reportedly cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet earlier this week.

Goenka, an IIT alumnus, had been associated with two major automobile companies - General Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra - in his professional career that spanned over four decades.

He had earned his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT-Kanpur and Ph.D. from Cornell University, United States. He is also a graduate of Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School. He worked at General Motors R&D Centre in Detroit from 1979 to 1993.

Thereafter, he joined Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, as General Manager (R&D). During his R&D tenure he led the development of the Scorpio SUV.

Goenka, during his near three-decade tenure with M&M, was appointed as COO (Automotive Sector) in April 2003, President (Automotive Sector) in September 2005, President (Automotive & Farm Equipment Sectors) in April 2010, Executive Director and Group President (AFS) in April 2015, and was elevated as Managing Director of M&M in November 2016.

He retired as the MD of the company on April 1, 2021, after spending 27 years with the Mahindra Group.