Tata Sons names panelists to spot successor for Ratan
By fe Bureau
Cyrus Mistry, director, Tata Sons, NA Soonawala, RK Krishna Kumar, director Tata Sons, lawyer Shirin Bharucha and academic and businessman Lord Bhattacharyya will together shoulder the responsibility of selecting a successor to Ratan N Tata, chairman of the $70-billion Tata Group. Tata is due to retire in December 2012 when he turns 75. Tata Sons announced the names of the selection committee members Friday.
Cyrus Mistry is the younger son of Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry and was appointed board member of Tata Sons in 2006. The Mistry family owns 18% stake in Tata Sons. Soonawala, now trustee of the Dorabji Tata trust and Krishna Kumar need no introduction, having been trusted lieutenants of the Tatas for decades. Krishna Kumar joined the Tata Administrative Service in 1963 and is vice-chairman of Tata Tea (TATATEA.NS : 121.9 0
) and Indian Hotels Company. Lawyer Shirin Bharucha's association with the Tata Group too goes back to the sixties. A trustee of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Bharucha is involved with a number of trusts, which work for Mumbai's urban renewal.
The external member on the panel is Lord Bhattacharyya, one of the most influential Asian businessmen in Britain and the founder of the renowned Warwick Manufacturing Group. The industrial research and training consultancy, part of Warwick University, turns over 105 million pounds a year. According to a report in Sunday Times, Bhattacharyya helped bring the Tata Group to the Midlands it announced in 2005 that it would set up an engineering design centre to soak up car manufacturing expertise.
Born in 1940, Bhattacharyya, an academic, became a member of the House of Lords in 2004 and is independently wealthy from family investments. Among the frontrunners for the top job at India's biggest conglomerate is Noel Naval Tata, half-brother of Ratan Tata and son-in-law of Shapoorji Pallonji. Last week, Noel Tata moved to Tata International as managing director from Trent, where he spent more than a decade and of which he is now vice-chairman.
CAclubindia
