Tata Sons board replaces Cyrus Mistry as Chairman, Ratan Tata takes over as interim boss

In a surprise development, Tata Sons on Monday announced that its board has replaced Cyrus P Mistry as Chairman of Tata Sons. The decision was taken at a board meeting held in Mumbai today.

The board has named Ratan N Tata as interim Chairman of Tata Sons and constituted a selection committee to choose a new Chairman.

The selection committee has been mandated to complete the selection process within four months from today.

The committee comprises Ratan Tata, Venu Srinivasan, Amit Chandra, Ronen Sen and Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, per the criteria in the Articles of Association of Tata Sons.

Mistry, who resigned from his post as Chairman, had taken over the reigns from Ratan Tata nearly four years back in December 2012.

He was also the Chairman of companies under Tata Sons like Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power Company, Tata Motors, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive, The Indian Hotels Company, Tata Chemicals, Tata Industries and Tata Teleservices.

Prior to succeeding Ratan Tata as the company’s 6th Chairman, Mistry had been a board member of Tata Sons since 2006 and Managing Director of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group.

A post-graduate from London Business School, Mistry described his experience since becoming Chairman of Tata Sons just last month.

“When I assumed office as the group chairman, I was acutely aware of a few things. I knew I was not leading a single company, but was at the helm of a unique institution with a rich and glorious history. I was very conscious that we had a powerful foundation that had been nurtured over the last fifteen decades, and we now needed to build the capabilities that would allow us to succeed for the next 150 years,” Mistry had said.

Tata Sons, the $100 billion plus business conglomerate, is the holding company of the Tata Group and holds the bulk of shareholding in these companies. It was established as a trading enterprise by Group founder Jamsetji Tata in 1868.