Noel Tata may soon be inducted as a Director on the board of Tata Sons. The move comes after he was appointed a trustee of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust in 2019. A final decision is yet to be made and a few discussions on the same have taken place, according to a report by the Hindu BusinessLine.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
“If Noel is inducted to the Tata Sons Board, it could be a precursor to appointing him as a successor to Ratan Tata. The equation between Noel and Ratan has improved over the last few years, especially after Noel backed his brother against Cyrus Mistry,” said a Tata group veteran told the paper.
Certain insiders are also backing Noel Tata’s induction – as is his half-brother and Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata, the report said.
Within the Tata Group of companies, Noel Tata is Chairman of Trent (Westside) and Tata Investment Corporation; Managing Director of Tata International and Vice Chairman of Titan Company. He is also son-in-law to Pallonji Mistry, father of expelled Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry.
Tata Sons did not respond to queries.
There may also be other changes to the board, the report added.
The board at present includes N Chandrasekaran as Executive Director, and former IFC’s management group member Farida Khambata, TVS Group CMD Venu Srinivasan, Piramal and Sriram Group Chairman Ajay Piramal, Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth, former Titan CEO Bhaskar Bhat, former Unilever Group Chairman Harish Manwani and Tata Sons Group CFO Saurabh Agrawal as Directors.
