Uber India head Pradeep Parameswaran will now lead the Asia Pacific region for the $60 billion company

• Uber India head Pradeep Parameswaran now has a bigger role.
• Parameswaran will now lead Uber in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.
• Parameswaran’s larger role comes at a time when ride hailing businesses across the world have been hit because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Uber India head Pradeep Parameswaran now has a bigger role – he will be leading the Asia Pacific region for the company. Parameswaran will now lead Uber in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.

“After capably leading our India and South Asia business since 2018, I know that he will continue to inspire Uber’s next phase of growth across this key region,” said Andrew Macdonald, Uber’s Senior Vice President of mobility and business operations in a statement.

This follows a similar trajectory as Uber’s former India lead – Amit Jain, who currently works with Sequoia.

Pradeep Parameswaran took over Amit Jain as India head while Jain was elevated to be the Asia Pacific head for the ride-hailing app. Parameswaran, a former Mckinsey executive, had joined Uber in January 2017 to head operations and in June 2018 was promoted to be the India head.

Under his leadership, in FY19 Uber India posted a year-on-year profit jump of 63% to ₹43 crore.

“There is huge potential to serve more Uber customers and continue innovating in APAC, whether that be taxi partnerships in North Asia and new products like Uber Rent in Australia. In India, we will continue to leverage the power of our platform to provide safe and affordable mobility options. We will also expand our Auto and Moto categories across many more Indian cities to create additional employment opportunities and reignite economic growth,” Parameswaran said about his appointment.

Parameswaran’s larger role comes at a time when ride hailing businesses across the world have been hit because of the coronavirus pandemic. While Uber has resumed its services in India, users are still skeptical about using ride hailing services as the fear of the virus still looms.

As a part of its massive global layoff of 6,700 employees, Uber India too had laid off 600 employees in India. Globally, Uber lost $2.9 billion in the first three months of the year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

"I won't sugarcoat it. COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on rides, with the business down globally around 80% in April,” said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi during the conference call for its earnings.

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