Ola hires former PepsiCo executive Vishal Kaul as Chief Operating Officer

Transportation app Ola on Monday said it has appointed former PepsiCo executive Vishal Kaul as its Chief Operating Officer (COO).

He succeeds Pranay Jivrajka, Ola’s first employee.

Jivrajka has now been appointed as Founding Partner and will continue to work closely with Bhavish Aggarwal, Ola co-founder and CEO.

As COO, Kaul will head Ola’s operations, strengthen market leadership, widen the base of its customers and driver-partner fraternity, the cab aggregator said in a statement.

Kaul, who has been with PepsiCo since the start of his career in 1999, most recently served as the General Manager of PepsiCo Foods for Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.

“I am thrilled about Vishal joining Ola to lead our operations. Vishal’s energy is palpable and I have really enjoyed my interactions with him since we began interacting a few months ago. He is a passionate and experienced business leader with a demonstrated ability to drive business towards growth and profitability,” Aggarwal said.

On Jivrajkas new role, he said: “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...This organisational change will enable him to focus on these initiatives much more sharply,” he added.