Mahindra & Mahindra - a utility vehicle manufacturing giant that claims to be the world's largest tractor company (by volume) - has announced a changing of the guard, with a new managing director and CEO to take up his role this week.

The Indian multinational announced the appointment of Dr. Anish Shah, effective as of this Friday, April 2, 2021.

According to Mahindra & Mahindra: "He is the deputy managing director and group CFO of Mahindra & Mahindra [M&M] Limited.

Dr. Shah will join the board of directors of the company, and is also to take over as chairman of the board of Mahindra Logistics Limited, which is part of the mobility services sector of the group.

The company noted that V S Parthasarathy, president of the mobility services sector and member of the Mahindra Group Executive Board, has decided to leave the Mahindra Group to pursue personal interests.

With intentions of going into consulting and taking up initiatives in "business, education and society in the next phase of his career", the company said Parthasarathy will resign from the board of Mahindra Logistics Limited (MLL) with effect from Friday.

Commenting on the change, Darius Pandole, chairman of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee of the M&M board said:

“We would like to thank Mr Parthasarathy for his contributions as the chairman of the [MLL] board and welcome Dr. Anish Shah as the incoming chairman.

"We are confident that this will be further accelerated under Anish’s chairmanship on the board,” Pandole concluded.

Worth some US$19.4 billion, the Mahindra Group operates in the utility vehicles, information technology, financial services and vacation ownership sectors in India and claims to be the world’s largest tractor company, by volume.

Headquartered in India, Mahindra employs over 200,000 people across 100 countries.