24 October,2016 05:49 PM IST | | mid-day online correspondent
In a surprise move, Tata Sons on Monday removed Cyrus Mistry as its Chairman, nearly four years after he took over the reins of the over USD 100 billion conglomerate
Tata Sons removes Cyrus Mistry as Chairman, Ratan Tata returns
Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry
In a surprise move, Tata Sons on Monday removed Cyrus Mistry as its Chairman, nearly four years after he took over the reins of the over USD 100 billion salt-to-software conglomerate.
78-year-old Ratan Tata, who Mistry had replaced on December 29, 2012, has been appointed as interim Chairman for four months during which a search committee will look for a replacement.
The decision to replace Mistry was taken at a Board meeting held in Mumbai on Monday.
The board constituted a selection committee comprising Tata, TVS Group head Venu Srinivasan, Amit Chandra of Bain Capital, former diplomat Ronen Sen and Lord Kumar Bhattacharya. All of them, except Bhattacharya, are on the board of Tata Sons. The committee has been mandated to complete the selection process in four months.
CEOs at the operating company level have not been touched in the rejig.
The dramatic development took corporates and others by surprise.
There were no reasons given for the change of leadership of the man who was brought in with much fanfare but it is believed that Tata Sons was unhappy with Mistry's approach of shedding non-profit businesses, including the conglomerate's steel business in Europe, and concentrating only on cash cows.
Tata Sons is the main holding company of the group. CEOs at the operating company level of the group have not
been touched in the rejig, company sources said.
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The 48-year-old Cyrus was the sixth Tata group chairman and had been a director of the company since 2006. In addition to being group chairman, Mistry was also the chairman of leading Tata group companies, including Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power Company, The Indian Hotels Company, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Chemicals, Tata Industries and Tata Teleservices. Before joining Tata Sons, he was the managing director of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group.
He was the first non-Tata chief since 1868 to head the group and made chairman on the basis of his representation from Shapoorji Palonji, the largest shareholder in Tata Sons.
