Thales appoints Ankur Kanaglekar as Vice-President for India business

Thales has announced the appointment of Ankur Kanaglekar as Vice-President for India, effective immediately, as part of its strategy to deepen its presence in the country and accelerate localisation efforts in line with India’s "Aatmanirbhar Bharat" vision.

Kanaglekar, who brings over 25 years of experience in aerospace, defence and consulting, will be responsible for driving Thales’ strategy and operations in India. His mandate will include strengthening industrial collaboration, enhancing local innovation and engineering capabilities, and delivering advanced solutions across defence, aerospace, and cyber and digital markets.

Prior to joining Thales, Kanaglekar spent 14 years at Boeing India, most recently as Executive Director. At Boeing, he spearheaded global co-development and co-production initiatives for defence platforms, led several large sales campaigns, and shaped strategic growth initiatives. His work was instrumental in forging partnerships with Indian public and private sector organisations, supporting the government’s Make-in-India initiative and advancing defence localisation. Before Boeing, he served as Engagement Manager at PRTM Management Consulting (now part of PwC), where he advised Fortune 500 clients on mergers and acquisitions, operations, and go-to-market strategies across aerospace, automotive and industrial sectors.

“I am pleased to welcome Ankur Kanaglekar to Thales. With his proven leadership and deep understanding of the Indian market, we aim to further enhance our support of the country’s ambitious self-reliance objectives, co-develop cutting-edge solutions, and nurture local talent,” said Pascale Sourisse, President and CEO, Thales International.

Thales has been present in India since 1953 and is headquartered in Noida, with operational sites in Delhi, Gurugram, Bengaluru and Mumbai. The company employs more than 2,200 people across its operations and joint ventures in India. It operates two engineering competence centres - one in Noida focused on cyber and digital business, and another in Bengaluru that supports hardware, software and systems engineering for both civil and defence markets. Thales also runs a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in Gurugram, providing avionics support for Indian airlines.

The French technology group invested over €4 billion in research and development in 2024, focusing on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum and cloud technologies, and generated €20.6 billion in annual revenue.