Chris Villavarayan will also join the Board of Directors of Axalta, succeeding to Rakesh Sachdev.
Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has announced the appointment of Chris Villavarayan as the new chief executive officer and president, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the company, effective from 1st
January 2023. Villavarayan is a proven global executive with more than two decades of diverse operational and management experience in industrial sectors.
The interim CEO and president Rakesh Sachdev will succeed as non-executive Board Chair to Bill Cook, who will continue to serve as an independent director and will become Chair of the Board’s Compensation Committee, while also continuing to serve on the Audit Committee.
“On behalf of the entire Axalta Board and management team, I am delighted to welcome Chris as our company’s next CEO, and I want to thank Rakesh for his leadership during the transition period. Chris’s appointment follows a comprehensive search process to identify a strong leader for the company, and he joins Axalta with the full support of our Board,” has stated Cook. “Chris is a seasoned executive who will bring to Axalta his global operating experience, deep expertise in product development and manufacturing and a proven record of driving outstanding business results. Over the course of his career, Chris has distinguished himself by defining and executing innovative and forward-looking growth strategies. We are confident that he will be an outstanding CEO with the skillsets necessary to achieve our strategic objectives and accelerate shareholder value.”
Villavarayan served as CEO and president of Meritor, Inc. and will bring to Axalta an established track record of driving growth, expanding margins and managing complex global operations resulting in significant shareholder value creation.
“I am excited to join Axalta, a company with a proud 150-year history that I have long admired. I am eager to leverage my experience to build on the team’s work to position the business for accelerated growth and market leadership. I look forward to working alongside the Board, Axalta’s management and the global team to lead the company toward realizing its strategic value to benefit all our stakeholders,” has declared Villavarayan.
“We have every confidence that, under Chris’s leadership, Axalta will be better positioned than ever to successfully execute our strategic imperatives to drive profitable growth. I want to thank Bill for his exceptional service as Board Chair, and I am honored to step into the role at the start of the new year. I look forward to working closely with Chris and the Board to generate meaningful value for shareholders,” has concluded Sachdev.