Electric vehicle maker Arrival hires chief human resources officer from Gett

Commercial electric vehicle maker Arrival has appointed Mandeep Bajwa as its chief human resources officer to oversee HR across the company’s distributed micro-factories.

Shared exclusively with UKTN, Bajwa joins from Gett, a ground transportation management platform, where she held the role of chief people officer.

Bajwa will join Arrival later this month. She has also previously worked for tech startups WeWork and CloudKitchens.

“I’ve been very fortunate in my career to work across a range of industries including technology, transport and real estate – all at different levels of growth,” Bajwa told UKTN.

“The combination of different industries and maturity of business models has given me a unique perspective on building and sustaining cultures for long-term growth.”

Founded in 2015 by Denis Sverdlov, Arrival is an electric vehicle manufacturer of vans, buses and cars.

It builds vehicles using localised micro-factories, a manufacturing process that uses cell-based robotic assembly instead of a traditional automotive production line.

These versatile factories can be quickly set up in warehouses to meet demand in the area. The localised supply chain reduces environmental impact. Arrival says its approach has “superior unit economics” compared to traditional production lines.

Arrival’s van and bus concepts recently received EU certification, with the van expected to begin production later this year at its first micro-factory in Bicester, Oxfordshire.

The company’s headquarters is in London and it has an R&D site in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

When asked how managing teams in dispersed micro-factories will differ, Bajwa said:

“For me, what’s really important in managing a distributed workforce is focusing on people development, company values and the shared mission.

“Many of the businesses I have worked with have had dispersed workforces, and even more so since the pandemic, so this is a challenge many professionals in my area are finding themselves facing.

“But there are an ever-growing number of tools to help communicate with our employees wherever they may be.”

In 2020, delivery service UPS ordered 10,000 of the company’s electric vans and is working with ride-hailing app Uber on an electric car.