RIP Karl Slym

Tata Motors Managing Director Karl Slym, 51, died after a freak accident which saw him falling from the top floor of a hotel in Bangkok. Thailand. He was in Bangkok to attend a board meeting of Tata’s Thailand unit.

Slym, who was a self-confessed ‘Britisher who can’t stay away from India’, assumed charge as MD in September 2012, with a brief to revive the Tata brand. He led the auto maker’s operations in India and international markets including South Korea, Thailand and South Africa. Credit can be given to him for Tata’s ‘Horizonnext’ strategy which gave birth to the many facelifts of the Nano, including the Twist variant, the Vista and the Manza. The new Falcon 4 and 5 which are the Vista and Manza’s replacements are also a result of the Horizonnext strategy.

Before joining Tata Motors, Slym was executive vice-president of SGMW Motors, China, a General Motors joint venture. Earlier, he had headed General Motors in India where he was solely responsible for pushing through a Rs 338 crore investment to bring the 3-cylinder diesel engine for the Beat in India.
He is survived by his wife Sally Slym who was with him at the time of the accident.