Amitabh Bhatt has taken over as Chief Executive Officer of Bengaluru-headquartered defense PSU, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's Bangalore Complex.

Earlier, he was heading the Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) project in HAL as Executive Director. Bhatt is a Post Graduate in Management and earlier served in SKF India Limited for 15 years before joining HAL. With his 32 years of professional experience in HAL, he spearheaded marketing, planning, and projects.

He led the team as Chief of Projects (LUH), played a key role in setting up an integrated new helicopter factory, a Rs 3,000 crore greenfield project, an HAL statement said on Monday.

He is a Director on Board of HAL's joint venture, 'Indo Russian Helicopters Limited', formed to build Kamov KA- 226T Helicopters for Defence Services. During his stint at Helicopter Division, helicopters were delivered to ONGC, Geological Survey of India and Government of Jharkhand and exported to Nepal, Surinam, Mauritius, and Ecuador, it was stated.