Tata Trusts board may consider promoting existing employee as CEO: Report

Ratan Tata: Decency is the name

After Srinath Narasimhan, a Tata Group veteran, retired at 60, the Tata Trusts board is reportedly considering a few internal candidates for the position of CEO, The Economic Times reported on December 2.

Among the names discussed are Siddharth Sharma, Tata Sons group chief sustainability office (CSO), and Sukaran Singh, CEO of Tata Advanced Systems, the report said quoting top company executives. The Tata Trusts hold 66 percent of Tata Sons, the group holding company.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

According to the executives, the board of trustees will also consider other candidates. No names have yet been finalized. Ratan Tata's recommendations about the final candidate will play a key role in making the final decision, they said, as per the report.

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The Tata Trusts did not comment, the report added. Usually, the Trusts have been overseen by a Tata insider. Narasimhan was named the first CEO of the Tata Trusts in 2020, marking a pivot to a more professional management style. Narasimhan was earlier managing director of Tata Teleservices and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra).

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Tata Trusts were previously managed by a managing trustee and 20 trustees. Since joining Tata in 2019, Siddharth Sharma has been a career bureaucrat for more than two and a half decades. During his tenure in government service, he held key positions in the ministries of finance, external affairs, and urban development and played a pivotal role in conceptualizing and implementing pension reform in India.

In 2012-17, he served as financial advisor to the late President Pranab Mukherjee. Under his leadership, Tata Group's ESG (environment, social, and governance) initiatives are overseen by the Tata Sustainability Group, which chairs the Tata Group Sustainability Council.

Sukaran Singh joined the Tata Group in 2003 and currently serves as CEO of TASL, a company that provides integrated solutions for aviation, defence, and homeland security.

Tata Trusts have begun strengthening their board of trustees as part of their corporate governance strengthening exercise and succession planning by adding Mehli Mistry, 62, a director of Meherji Pallonji.

In addition to being close to Ratan Tata, Mistry has excellent administrative and sourcing skills, according to those cited above, and is expected to play an important role at the Trusts. Mistry oversees over a dozen companies, with interests varying from paint distribution to logistics, travel and automotive dealerships.

Tata, 84, has devoted much of his time in recent years to ensuring the Trusts pursue critical causes like malnutrition, cancer treatment, sanitization and education.

Those being hired by the Trusts have the skill set and expertise to help scale up their reach in such key areas, insiders said, as per the report. Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, is keen to make sure that the objectives of both institutions, the Tata Trusts and Tata Sons, are upheld.

Approximately 66 per cent of Tata Sons' equity capital is held by philanthropic trusts endowed by Tata family members. There are two major trusts in the Tata family - the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust.