Virgin Hyperloop has appointed Raja Narayanan as the Chief Financial Officer. Narayanan who was formerly with Hyundai Aptiv Joint Venture will oversee all finance and business development for Virgin Hyperloop.
Narayanan said that he has built his career around things 'that fly and move' and is convinced in the value of Virgin Hyperloop. "I have built my career around things that fly and things that move. For the next chapter, I am excited to be joining Virgin Hyperloop, the company truly pioneering the future of autonomous mass transit. I am convinced in the value of hyperloop to unlock exponential growth and impact millions in generations to come by creating a safe, sustainable mode of transportation," said Narayanan.
CEO Jay Walder welcomed Narayanan and said that he has an unprecedented background in creating value in disruptive transportation opportunities. "We are excited to have him join Virgin Hyperloop at this pivotal time where the world is adapting to the new normal and realising we need solutions like hyperloop that allow us to not just rebuild, but evolve," he added.
The new CFO of Virgin Hyperloop has formerly worked with Hyundai-Aptiv Autonomous Driving Joint Venture, OneWeb, and Panasonic. He is an alumnus of University of Louisiana and University of Madras.
Before heading to Virgin Hyperloop, Narayanan was SVP at Hyundai-Aptiv Autonomous Driving Joint Venture. He was responsible for commercialising L4 autonomous driving technology. L4 is an advanced form of self-driving, where no driver attention is required for safety, as against partial monitoring by the driver. The driver could even go to sleep.
Narayanan was involved with OneWeb, before Hyundai-Aptiv. He was the VP at Panasonic before that, heading the strategic planning of the appliances business to IoT-based automation.
Narayanan is a graduate of Computer Science from University of Louisiana, Lafayette and has dual Bachelor's degrees in Engineering and Physics from Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and University of Madras. He is also the co-author of six wireless patents.
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