Tata Sons is set to decide on its new Chairman, much before the expiry of the four-month deadline its five-man selection panel set in October, following the ousting of Cyrus Mistry – then Chairman of the $103-billion conglomerate.
According to a report published in the Business Standard, the five-member selection committee - which includes Ratan Tata (Mistry's predecessor and the interim chairman) along with TVS Group Chairman Venu Srinivasan, Bain Capital’s Amit Chandra, Ronen Sen and Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya - has held several meetings in the past weeks and are close to zeroing in on a new pick.
Speaking to Forbes, RK Krishna Kumar, a close confidante of Ratan Tata and a trustee of the Tata Trusts, also hinted that the new Chairman could take over as early as the end of January.
Krishna Kumar, who retired as a Tata Sons director in 2013 after five decades with the group, is a key member of Ratan Tata’s inner circle. He added that “the selection process for the new chairman is well under way.”
Competition for New Chairman Heats Up
The search for a new chairman of Tata Sons has thrown up quite a few names. Speculation has been rife about who will finally replace the ousted Cyrus Mistry.
High-profile names like the head of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi, Arun Sarin, the former head of Vodafone Group, and Ratan Tata’s half-brother, Noel Tata who is married to Mistry’s sister, have been doing the rounds.
However, reports suggest the company will look to fill the void internally by promoting Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO Natarajan Chandrasekaran, who has spent close to three decades with the group. He was appointed to the board of Tata Sons a day after Mistry’s ouster. Other names in the running include his predecessor S Ramadorai, and Jaguar Land Rover boss Ralf Speth.
(With inputs from Forbes, The Economic Times and Business Standard.)
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