Half a dozen Ola's key executives from UK and Australian markets quit

Ola, which recently witnessed resignation of its head of engineering and products Pranav Tiwari and Ola’s Electric head of finance Sarmad Nazki, has seen some churn at the top level across three major overseas markets.

Six senior executives based out of UK, Australia and New Zealand have put in their papers.

According to a Moneycontrol report, three senior executives from the UK operations including Managing Director Ben Legg, Chief Marketing Officer Emma Kenelm and head of human resources Natalie Brown have resigned. 

Besides, Kashif Amjad, CFO and Financial Director for Australia and New Zealand, Tyler Stead, Operations Manager New Zealand and Stewart F Brown of Sydney Operations Manager have also quit the company.

However, refuting the claim in the report, Ola spokesperson said that Kenelm hasn't resigned and is very much working for the company.

Ola claims to expand its operation across the international market. However, the company's CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, is not happy with the performance in the UK. Legg, who is also on Ola UK’s board since August 2019, had come to India for a review, and he was asked to leave, added the report. 

Meanwhile, Ola's Group Chief Financial Officer Harish Abhichandani has been made the interim business head of the UK operations.

“As Ola’s International business continues to grow rapidly and we prepare to launch our 20th international city, we have reorganised our global management structure last quarter, to best prepare for our continued expansion. Ben Legg has stepped down from his role as Managing Director, Ola UK as of August 5, 2019, and remains a non-executive director for the foreseeable future," said an Ola spokesperson on the above resignations. 

Not only in Australia, UK and New Zealand, Ola is also facing challenges to launch in the US. The company has reportedly put aside the US launch plan and may prefer the European market to expand its overseas operations further. 

The Bengaluru-based firm has been planning to set up a new Advanced Technology Center in the San Francisco Bay area. The centre is likely to begin operations soon.

The development comes amidst the rumour of company's co-founder Ankit Bhati distancing himself from operational involvement. Ola had denied the report of his reduced role in the firm.

"This potpourri with names of employees who have moved on months ago, and some others who are very much in the system and part of the Ola team, is just engineered gossip and speculation on which we can’t comment further,” added the spokesperson.