Ride hailing giant Uber announced on Thursday that President of Uber India and South Asia, Padeep Parameswaran, will be now elevated to new role of General Manager of Asia Pacific. Parameswaran will officially take over the president of APAC Biz on June, 19.
In his current role, Parameswaran looks after Uber’s business in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Now following the promotion, he will be responsible for fomenting Uber’s growth in six additional markets in Asian continent. This includes South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.
Parameswaran joined the US based ride-hailing giant in January. Initially, he was responsible for looking after central operations in India and South Asia. He was appointed as the president of Uber India and South Asia in June 2018. Under his guidance, Uber continued to hold sway over the Indian market despite tough competition from Ola.
“There is a huge potential to serve more Uber customers and continue innovating across the diverse region, whether that be taxi partnership in North Asia, new product like Uber Rent in Australia or pushing two or three-wheelers deep into Indian heartland” Parameswaran said.
Parameswaran’s elevation has come at a critical time when Uber’s global business has suffered massively due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic crises. The erosion in its business propelled the company to go for one of the biggest layoffs in the ride-hailing industry. As part of this lay off, the company furloughed quarter of its employees in India last month.
Uber has also just suffered a big setback on the front of food delivery business, after failing to acquire its competitor Grubhub despite a month long negotiation.
Separately, the SoftBank backed ride-hailing giant is also reportedly planning to shift its APAC headquarter from Singapore to Hong Kong.