Aggarwal Skipped Bulk of Ola's FY25 Board Meets

Ola Electric chairman Bhavish Aggarwal skipped over three-fourths of the company's board meetings last financial year, a rarity in the corporate world where founders and promoters attend them religiously.

- Ayaan Kartik & Varun Sood

The poor attendance of Aggarwal, also founder and managing director of Ola Electric Mobility Ltd, stands in stark contrast to the near-100% clocked by Niraj Bajaj, Venu Srinivasan and Pawan Munjal who chair boards at rivals Bajaj Auto Ltd, TVS Motor Co. Ltd and Hero MotorCorp Ltd respectively.

Deepinder Goyal, Sriharsha Majety and Vijay Shekhar Sharma who have founded similar new-age companies Zomato (now Eternal), Swiggy and Paytm too have near-full attendance.

Aggarwal's erratic attendance at Ola Electric's board meetings appears glaring especially since directors are free to attend them remotely, at a time when the automaker has lost market leadership, faces government scrutiny and sees its stock price sag.

Aggarwal attended four of Ola's 17 board meetings last fiscal year, giving him a 23.53% attendance, company disclosures showed. Significantly, no one on Ola's six-member board had full attendance, again a rare episode of absenteeism.

"Twelve of the seventeen board meetings were in the run-up to the listing, and many were procedural, which didn't require the founder's input or strategic oversight," said Ola's independent director Manoj Kohli.

"Bhavish is a hands-on leader operating a complex business that combines tech, manufacturing, and supply chain resilience," he said.

Kohli acknowledged that since Ola went public last year, the EV industry has witnessed slower adoption rates. "These have prompted operational realignments to transform the company into a sustainable enterprise that will be wellplaced in the long haul. Bhavish has been deeply engaged in turning around the business, dedicating significant time to operational leadership.

The board effectively manages governance and process-related matters, ensuring strong oversight and compliance," said Kohli.

Aggarwal skipped two of Ola's three board meetings to approve company earnings.