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Marc Luyten to take up role as CMO, Apollo Tyres

Luyten moves in from Vredestein Banden, which was acquired by Apollo Tyres. The marketing team at Apollo Tyres is also undergoing a reshuffle

In a newly created designation at Apollo Tyres India, Marc Luyten has been appointed chief marketing officer. He will report to Neeraj Kanwar, managing director, Apollo Tyres Ltd. Luyten comes in from Netherlands based Vredestein Banden BV (VBBV), which was acquired by Apollo Tyres in May. Earlier, he was director, marketing and sales, VBBV.

Luyten takes on his new assignment with effect from January 1, 2010. He will look after the global marketing efforts of Apollo's key product brands. He will be assisted by a team of product brand managers responsible for individual brands across all geographies, including Europe, Africa and Asia. The team under Luyten will focus on enhancing each product brand's position across the globe, both with automobile manufacturers and in the replacement market.

Marc Luyten to take up role as CMO, Apollo Tyres
In a release to the media, Kanwar says, "In a rapidly growing organisation like ours, Luyten and his team will bring in the much needed synergy across locations, adding enormous value by building each of these product brands with their distinctive value propositions."

According to informed sources, there is a restructuring exercise taking place within the marketing team at Apollo Tyres. The global marketing structure is a result of the integration of Apollo Tyres India and the two acquired entities of Dunlop Tyres in South Africa in 2006 and Vredestein Banden in May 2009. With the acquisition, the need for a restructuring emerged.

Prior to this, Aveek Chattopadhyay was looking after corporate marketing; and Rajesh Dahiya was in charge of sales and marketing, India for the company.

Following the global alignments and the reshuffle, Dahiya's portfolio remains the same. However, Chattopdhayay will now look after one of the two collaterals - brand management only for brand Apollo globally (across Asia, Europe and Africa) and report to Luyten; while Kankana Das will look after corporate branding (across the three geographies) and report to Kanwar.

Chattopadhayay's in-depth knowledge about the Apollo brand is learnt to be the reason behind the portfolio being handed over to him.

Dunlop and Vredestein will have separate brand managers (at their headquarters) to play a global role for the respective brands.

Luyten has been director, corporate marketing and sales, Vredestein Banden since 1995. He joined the organisation in 1992 as managing director, Vredestein Belgium (Brussels) and sales manager of the Dutch market.

Luyten has played a central role in creating Vredestein's profile, positioning it as an aspirational brand and establishing its network of sales subsidiaries across Europe and North America.

From 1972-79, Luyten was manager, communications and PR at the Ministry of Public Works in Brussels, Ghent and Bruges. During 1979-84, he was marketing and sales manager at the OPEC-SLI Group in Brussels.

Subsequently, he worked as director, sales and marketing at the international department of WH Brady, a company based in the USA and worldwide market leader in connectors and cable related products. He has also worked as managing director, Belgium (Brussels) for three years (1989-92) at Panduit Co., another USA based company with a worldwide presence in the electrical and electronics sector. Alongside, he was involved in the start up of a manufacturing division for ID products in Bad Homburg (Germany).

Luyten will be based in Brussels and will report directly to Kanwar. Speaking about his enhanced portfolio, Luyten tells the media, "Moving into a true global company now brings all of us phenomenal opportunities. The market has been inspiring us for so many years and will continue to encourage us in our thinking and acting as a market and customer driven company."

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