Hinduja Group flagship firm Ashok Leyland on Wednesday said its Chief Operating Officer Nitin Seth is leaving after serving 11 years to pursue an alternate career outside the company.

Seth successfully led a strong team in building Ashok Leyland's light commercial vehicle (LCV) business as well as other businesses, it said in a statement.

Ashok Leyland Managing Director and CEO Vipin Sondhi said, "Nitin has been a core member of the leadership team at Ashok Leyland. We wish him the very best for the future." Sondhi further said, "The company has a strong bandwidth of leaders and we will continue to pursue our growth ambitions in all businesses as planned." Seth has over 25 years of experience in the automotive industry in sales and marketing, both in domestic and international markets, besides product development.

Before joining Ashok Leyland, he was the head (sales and marketing) for cars (Indica, Indigo and Nano) at Tata Motors and additionally held other key leadership positions. He was one of the key members in launching the passenger car business at Tata Motors in 1999.

At Ashok Leyland, he held several top positions. In his role as chief operating officer, he was responsible for light commercial vehicles, defence, international operations (IO) and power solutions business (PSB).

A recipient of Fulbright - CII fellowship from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg (US), Seth is an engineering graduate from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and did his Post Graduation in Business Management from University of Mumbai.