Vishal Kaul appointed as Chief Operating Officer of Ola Cabs

Vishal Kaul, a PepsiCo veteran, was on 23 January 2017 appointed as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the ride-hailing service Ola Cabs.

Kaul will head Ola’s operations, strengthen Ola’s market leadership and will work to expand its reach across the country and widen the base of Ola’s customers and driver-partner fraternity.

Moreover, the company also elevated current COO Pranay Jivrajika as the Founding Partner. An alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, Jivrajika had earlier served as Associate Vice-President and Vice-President of Ola Operations before taking over as COO in February 2015.

About Vishal Kaul
• Kaul joined the PepsiCo, a FMCG, in 1999.
• With over 18 years of experience in PepsiCo, he has served various positions including Vice-President (marketing), Vice-President (business operations) and most recently as General Manager (Thailand, Myanmar and Laos).
• Among many accomplishments, he won PepsiCo President's Ring of Honor and Exceptional Change Leadership awards for his performance in India.
• He is an alumnus of Punjab Engineering College and Symbiosis Centre for Management and HRD.

About Ola's market presence
• Ola has been strengthening its leadership team as it strives to expand its lead over Uber Technologies Inc.
• Earlier in January 2017, Ola appointed former SAB Miller India executive Shalabh Seth as the Chief Executive Officer of Ola Fleet Technologies Pvt Ltd to help grow the supply of cars.
• However, on the other hand, the company is struggling over senior-level exits. Most recently, Abhimanyu Rawal resigned as Head of Ola’s luxury car business.
• Earlier in 2015, Harsha Kumar, Associate Vice-President of products and Rushil Goel, Head of the Payments Business, had quit.
• Till date, Ola has raised around USD1.3 billion in external funding. However, still its valuation was marked down by Japanese internet company Softbank, an investor.