McKinsey alumnus Prabhjeet Singh leads Uber in India
Prabhjeet Singh, a near ten-year veteran of McKinsey & Company in India, has continued his career growth at taxi and mobility giant Uber.
After graduating from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), Prabhjeet Singh started his career at McKinsey & Company, one of the globe’s most prestigious management consulting firms. During his nine-year tenure at the firm, he helped more than 30+ clients in the private and public sector with among others strategy, sales transformation, organisational change and operations excellence.
Singh worked for clients across a number of sectors, including financial services (incumbent banks, challenger banks and payment providers), telecom and consumer tech in India and South-East Asia.
In the summer of 2015, then an Associate Partner at McKinsey, Singh left consulting to join Uber in India as Head of Strategy & Planning. Over the past five years, he has risen the ranks at the global taxi disruptor, most recently serving as Head of Cities for India & South Asia. He led Uber’s expansion in India, launching the service in multiple new cities and helped scale up Uber’s non-taxi services such as the auto and motor segments.
In 2019, Uber facilitated 14 million rides a week in India, up from 11 million the year previous, a statistic which gives the American ride-hailing firm pole position in the important Indian market, ahead of local rival Ola. This year, Uber aims at expanding its coverage in the country to around 200 cities.
Now appointed President of India and South Asia, Singh will lead the drive, overseeing the firm’s growth strategy across India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He fills the shoes of Pradeep Parameswaran who was made regional general manager for Asia Pacific in June.
“I’m confident Prabhjeet will exceed our expectations by leading Uber India on to the path of profitability, further consolidate our partnership with public transport authorities, continue our growth trajectory by expanding auto and moto to the next batch of cities, and build iconic teams,” Parameswaran said.
Notably, Parameswaran is also a McKinsey & Company alumnus. He worked thirteen years for the consultancy, six of which in India, and seven in the US. Latterly, he led McKinsey’s Telecoms, Media and Technology (TMT) practice in India.
The appointment comes at a challenging time for Uber. Due to the fallout of demand induced by the Covid-19 pandemic, Uber has been forced to trim its costs globally and layoff a sizeable part of its workforce. In India, around a fourth of its workforce (close to 600 full-time employees) has been relived from their duties.
