User:Rajasekar.Vijayaraghavan IIMI/sandbox

Selvaraj "Sel" Narayana currently serves as the Director- Logistics and Sales south East Asia for KTM Power Sport AG- Austria. He held the position of Vice President of Racing and Event Promotions of KTM North America, Inc before he was assigned for the KTM operations in India. It was during his tenure, in 2000, Kelly Smith from Michigan won the Mount Morris National, the first ever National level Championship event win for KTM in the 29-year history of AMA Motocross Championship aboard a KTM SX125 bike. Deservedly, Sel Narayana is the winner of 3 Lifetime achievement awards.

Early life and Career
Selvaraj "Sel" Narayana was born in the South Indian city of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. He graduated from the Industrial Training Institute, Coimbatore in the year of 1969. He took a keen interest to motorcycles and racing at an early age and applied to motorcycle makers in Germany such as Sachs Motorcycles, Zündapp and Maico in the year of 1969. Thenceforward, he was called by Maico and he joined them in Europe. He started his career as a Factory worker in the Engine department. Eventually he was engaged in the Maico Racing department and worked with German National Championship campaigner Hans Maisch. He was one of the key technicians building and testing racing engines for World Championship Teams in Germany. In the year of 1972, Sel Narayana was assigned to travel to U.S.A. and barnstorm through the country with the factory team during the then trans-AMA series. Eventually, he joined the U.S. Maico and also upgraded his studies in accounting, small business management in Pennsylvania, USA. In the year 1983, Maico Germany ran into financial crisis and filed for bankruptcy. He continued served in the American sector of the business, which eventually went down a few years later.

Career at KTM
After his stint at Maico, Sel Narayana, as he is popularly known as in the Motocross circle, joined the Austrian Sports motorcycle maker KTM on April 6, 1987 as the General Manager of the West Coast office. He was working closely with the KTM Red Bull Supercross team. He was serving as the Team Manager of the KTM Red Bull Supercross team, when Kelly Smith from Michigan won the first ever National level Championship event win for KTM in the 29-year history of AMA Motocross Championship aboard a KTM SX125 bike on May 28, 2000. In recognition of his contribution, he was presented with the Vintage Iron Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 by longtime friend and associate Roger De Coster, 5 time world Champion Motorcross.

He has worked with various departments at KTM such as Parts, Service, R & D, Development of the bikes, National Racing, International Racing, marketing, budgeting domestic sales, international sales in various capacities such as office Manager, General Manager, etc. He was instrumental in implementing the KTM’s K Style sport accessory apparel line. He was also in charge of the western office facility as a western office manager for many years before he became Vice President for KTM North America, Inc. In recognition of his efforts, he was offered a role by Mr. Stefan Pierer CEO of KTM Austria to manage the relationship with Bajaj in India, develop the distribution and branding of KTM in India as a part of the KTM-Bajaj JV in the year 2008. He is currently in charge of Asian sales and exploring market avenues in the region.

Awards & Achievements

 * VINTAGE IRON Life time Achievement award - 2000
 * MIC Chairman’s award - 2008
 * AMA FIM Clear channel Life time Achievement award - 2008
 * Mickey Thompson Award of Excellence - 2008

Board Memberships
Selvaraj Narayana served in the Motorcycle Industry Council for 18 years as one of the Board of Director. He also served as a Trustee for Motorcycle Safety Foundation for more than 10 years as well as SVIA organization. He has also represented SAE for many years and as an active member was involved with motorcycle related seminars.