Ripunjay Parikh has over 25 years of experience in sales, marketing, business development, channel management, strategy and compliance functions. In his current role at Eaton as director, he is leading sales in power distribution and control automation products. Parikh has worked with Siemens for more than 21 years, in the MV and LV switchgear, automation and drives, healthcare and data centre domains.
According to Parikh, “India is currently in an interesting transition phase in terms of both power generation and distribution. Reducing dependence on coal/oil-based power is making the sector more sustainable.” Of the installed generating capacity of 360 GW, one-fourth is already coming from renewable sources. The aim is to reach 175 GW by 2022 and 500 GW by 2030.
He believes decentralising generation and seamlessly integrating it with the grid reliably and affordably will be a revolutionary change in the sector. This will empower users to invest in sustainable power generation sources of their choice and reduce the burden on the grids and minimise losses. With this, every establishment can be a potential power producer from renewable source. Power can also be distributed to remote locations without the need for extensive grids/networks.
On Eaton’s roadmap, Parikh says, “Many of its innovations are already available to Indian customers, notably SF6 free solid insulated ring main units (RMUs) and arc fault detection device, which has the potential to early detect electrical arc faults.” Eaton has been investing in manufacturing many of its products in the state-of-the-art factory at Puducherry. Recently, it has started manufacturing 11 kV RMUs and many new products are in the pipeline.
Parikh takes pride in his transformation from being a product expert (introducing new-generation switchgear to Indian customers in 2004) to becoming a sales leader in 2013, which also helped him develop professionally for future assignments. He follows a people-oriented management style and believes in team empowerment to achieve results.
A sports lover, he has participated in various half marathons. He loves to good food and reading books such as Leadership Wisdom by Robin Sharma. He aspires to contribute to society in the field of education and wants to pursue meditation for developing emotional control. His wife is an entrepreneur and they have two schoolgoing children.