Samsonite International promotes Ramesh Tainwala to global COO

He has been associated with Samsonite for nearly two decades.

Samsonite International has promoted Ramesh Tainwala as global COO. He will be responsible for the day-to-day global operations of the US-based company and continue to be directly involved in the management of the company's businesses in China, Philippines and Australia.

Leo Boo Suk Suh will take over from Tainwala as president, Samsonite Asia and Middle East.

In his earlier role, Tainwala was executive director and president, Asia Pacific and Middle East, Samsonite International SA since February 10, 2011. His mandate was to manage and develop the group's business in Asia Pacific which included the group's manufacturing operations in India as well as marketing and sales in the Middle East, West Asia and Australia.

He says, "I am delighted to take on my new role at a time when an increasing number of people are travelling and every market across the world presents interesting challenges. In this backdrop, I hope I will be able to strengthen Samsonite's leadership position globally."

Tainwala has been associated with Samsonite since 1995. Initially, he partnered with the group as a vendor and a silent partner when Samsonite wanted to enter the Indian market. Later, in 2000, he took the position of COO of the group's Indian operation and later as GM for the group's Middle Eastern operation since January, 2007.

Tainwala is a postgraduate from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani. He started his career in 1981 with a plastic trading company that was a vendor to VIP Industries. After a stint of five years, he started his own venture and became a vendor to Asian Paints and VIP Industries.

Samsonite was created in 1910 by Jesse Shwayder, and was first called the Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Company. Shwayder quickly recognised the financial opportunities in the growing luggage market due to the 'Gold Rush', which saw more and more people travelling from coast to coast to seek their fortunes. Some of the ground-breaking innovations from Samsonite are Samsonite polypropylene case named Saturn with injection-moulded shells (1969), Silhouette, first Samsonite suitcase on wheels (1974), Cosmolite (2008) and others. The company offers its products in 55 countries in EMEA and over 120 countries across the world.