Rudratej Singh, President & CEO of BMW Group India, died of a cardiac arrest in New Delhi on Monday. Affectionately called Rudy, he was just 46.

It was less than a fortnight earlier when Rudy had tweeted on the death of his colleague at BMW, Mihir Dayal who was Director (Sales): ‘Rest in peace, my friend — we play our pending round of gold now on the other side’. Dayal was just 40 when he passed away and now with Rudy’s death, it has been a double blow for BMW India.

Meanwhile, BMW Group India, as an interim measure, has appointed its chief financial officer Arlindo Teixeira as acting president.

Rudy had joined the German carmaker last August after a longer stint of four years at Royal Enfield where he was second in command to the MD, Siddhartha Lal. He constantly spoke of a renewed customer experience with the Enfield brand which meant a different retail feel in showrooms where apparel and riding gear complemented the core of biking.

Rudy had worked in FMCG groups such as Dabur and Hindustan Unilever for a large part of his professional life before switching over to the automotive domain with Royal Enfield and then BMW. Increasingly, automakers were seeking talent in the FMCG space to better understand customer needs and position their products appropriately in the B2C space.

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