Gautam Thakar appointed as the new OLX Auto Global CEO


Gautam Thakar appointed as the new OLX Auto Global CEO

OLX Group appointed former Star Sports president and chief executive Gautam Thakar as the new global CEO for its pre-owned car marketplace OLX Autos. In his new role, Gautam Thakar will be taking over the company’s offline and online presence across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the United States.

Thakar, who will officially preside over the role from March 15 onwards, will manage the global operations of OLX Autos based out of India, one among the fastest-growing large used car markets in the world, and will lead a workforce of more than 4,000 employees across various geographies.

“It is definitely an advantage having Gautam based in India where he can stay close to the operations and customers in such a key market, while leveraging his global CEO experience to lead our businesses in time zones both east (Indonesia) and west (Americas),” stated Martin Scheepbouwer, CEO at OLX Group.

Prior to his stint at Start Sports, Thakar was the Country Manager of eBay India back  in 2005, before taking up the international role as the CEO of eBay’s Shopping.com followed by another successful stint as vice-president and general manager of eBay Advertising.

He previously served as the president and CEO of LivingSocial which was acquired by Groupon.  Before his stint at eBay, Thakar was part of the founding management team at baazee.com, one of the pioneers of e-commerce in India.

"I am delighted with the opportunity and responsibility to lead the impressive global OLX Autos team. I’ve long watched the bold and ambitious approach taken by Naspers and Prosus as they’ve built great companies in so many exciting markets, including India," revealed Thakar

At present, OLX Autos has over 500 offline inspection centres that inspect 300,000 vehicles and facilitates 130,000 transactions a year.

 

Source: IANS