Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, January 2026 — Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India has appointed Prerna Malhotra as Lead – Leadership and Behavioral Development, strengthening its people and leadership capability agenda at one of the organization’s most critical global innovation hubs.
In her new role, Prerna Malhotra will lead leadership and behavioral development initiatives at MBRDI, focusing on building future-ready leaders, strengthening managerial effectiveness, and enabling a high-performance, inclusive culture aligned with Mercedes-Benz Group’s global people strategy. Based in Bengaluru, she will work closely with business and HR leadership to design and deliver impactful learning interventions that support innovation, transformation, and sustainable growth.
Prior to joining MBRDI, Prerna spent nearly five years at Flipkart, where she served as Senior Learning Partner and Learning Business Partner, supporting large-scale technology, product, and category operations teams. In this role, she partnered closely with business leaders to design leadership journeys, managerial capability programs, intact team interventions, and immersive onboarding experiences, impacting thousands of employees across functions.
Earlier, she was associated with Reliance Industries Limited, where she held roles including Senior Manager – Corporate L&D and Manager – Corporate L&D. At Reliance, she led enterprise-wide people manager capability development initiatives, designed blended and digital learning journeys, and drove adoption of microlearning, augmented reality, and game-based learning platforms across diverse business units.
Prerna’s career also includes learning leadership roles at MakeMyTrip, where she managed end-to-end training programs for large outsourced operations, as well as earlier learning and facilitation roles at IBM, where she worked as a learning consultant and accredited facilitator delivering behavioral and leadership programs across global markets. Across her career, she has built deep expertise in leadership development, organizational development, facilitation, and digital learning.
About Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India
Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI) is the largest research and development centre of Mercedes-Benz Group AG outside Germany. With over 27 years of innovation excellence, MBRDI plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of sustainable mobility, contributing to connected, autonomous, electric, and software-defined vehicle technologies. Headquartered in Bengaluru, MBRDI employs over 8,500 professionals across engineering, digitalisation, testing, simulation, and data science, with a strong focus on people, inclusion, and innovation-driven culture.
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