Exit interview: Ajay Bhatia’s journey from technologist to business manager

Carsales’s Ajay Bhatia has resigned as managing director at the Melbourne-based organisation he has been part of for the past 13 years. Bhatia, who joined Carsales in 2008 as chief product and information officer, became managing director for consumer business in 2017 and in December 2019 was appointed the local managing director.

Bhatia’s path to MD began as a technologist, rather than via a more traditional path such as sales or finance.

Bhatia is heading to Germany to join Adevinta group as CEO of online vehicle seller mobile.de. He is replacing mobile.de’s interim CEO, Patricia Lobinger. Bhatia says his focus at mobile.de will be to ensure the team is motivated and focused to bring customer, consumer, and commercial innovations to the German market. The team, according to Bhatia, has already built an excellent market position for the business with 1.5 million cars currently for sale and 16 million unique visitors to the website.

In an interview with CIO Australia, Bhatia says he has given “absolutely everything” to Carsales and it is now time to move on. “I am further excited by taking on new challenges and the family is excited to be in a new part of the world. I will miss Carsales, I will miss my friends and I will miss everything Aussie,” he says.

Ajay Bhatia’s achievements at Carsales

Bhatia has been a crucial part of the Australian e-commerce success story. In 2017, he was promoted to managing director of Carsales’s consumer business after spending several years driving the organisation’s technology strategy. He has spent the past two years in the top job following the organisation’s push into global markets in countries such as Argentina, Colombia, and Chile.

Bhatia tells CIO Australia that 13 years is a long time in a company to single out his biggest success but says what he is most proud of is the team that has been built at Carsales.