Jagdish Khattar

Jagdish Khattar (18 December 1942 26 April 2021) was an Indian businessman and civil servant. He was the managing director of Maruti Udyog Limited from 1999 to 2007. He first joined Maruti in July 1993 as a director (marketing). He was appointed managing director in 1999 as the government nominee, and reappointed in May 2002 as the Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) nominee. During his tenure, he oversaw a restructuring of the company in the face of foreign competitors entering the Indian market.

Prior to joining Maruti, Khattar was an officer of the Indian Administrative Service for more than 27 years. In 2008, he decided to set up an independent national sales and service network in the automobile sector, which became Carnation Auto.

Early life

Khattar was born on 18 December 1942 into a family of entrepreneurs He completed his Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from St. Stephen's College, Delhi and his LLB from Delhi University. Career Khattar was an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre. As a bureaucrat he served as the officer of the Uttar Pradesh state government between 1965 and 1979, during which he served as the district magistrate of Chamoli between 1969 and 1972, and the managing director of the Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation between 1975 and 1978. He joined the company in 1993 as a director of marketing and went on to become its executive director before being promoted to being its joint managing director in 1999. This was the time of differences between Suzuki Motor Corporation and the Government of India which were joint venture partners in the company. He was noted to have laid the foundation of the company's growth after the Indian government began its disinvestment from the joint venture in 2002. During this period of disagreement between the venture partners, Khattar dealt with issues on ownership, technology transfer, as well as industrial relations including a workers strike in the Gurgaon plant of the company in 2000.

Death Khattar died on 26 April 2021 from a cardiac arrest. He was aged 78. In addition, some of his managerial awards included: Ernst and Young – Manager Entrepreneur of the Year 2003 National HRD Network – Pathfinder CEO of the Year 2006 CNBC – Auto Car Man of the Year 2008 President, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) Member of Empowered Committee on National Automotive Testing and R & D Infrastructure (NATRIP) Member, Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority for the National Capital Region set up by the Supreme Court of India Member of the Committee constituted by Ministry of Defence, Government of India, to look into streamlining of systems for procurement of specific items Chairman, sub-committee for restructuring of Defence undertakings & ordnance factories.