A glimpse into the life of the now deceased business tycoon Cyrus Mistry

Former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry passed away in a road accident on September 4 after his car hit a divider in Maharashtra's Palghar district neighboring Mumbai according to police reports. Mistry was travelling from Ahmedabad to Mumbai in a Mercedes car.

Originally from Mumbai, Cyrus Pallonji Mistry was the scion of a wealthy business family who served as chairman of Tata Group from 2012-16. In mid-2012, a selection panel elected him to head Tata Group, and he took office in December that year. He was the sixth chairman and only second (after Nowroji Saklatwala) without the Tata surname.

Cyrus Mistry is the younger son of Pallonji Mistry, the head of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which began in the 19th century as a construction company. From the earliest colonial times, the Mistrys were members of Mumbai's Parsi community, followers of the Zoroastrian religion.

After graduating from Bishop Cathedral & John Connon School in Mumbai, Cyrus completed his higher education in England, where he earned an undergraduate degree in civil engineering from Imperial College London, and a master's degree in management from the London Business School.

He became director of the family's flagship construction company in 1991, Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. Ltd. Shapoor, his brother, headed the group's real-estate business, and their father continued as chairman. He also sat on the board of the Tata Group, another Mumbai-based conglomerate owned by the Tata family.

A 38-year-old Cyrus Mistry took over Pallonji Mistry's seat on the Tata Group board in 2006 after his retirement. His son, in addition to his duties with the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, served as director of several Tata companies.

In most Indian news media, Cyrus Mistry was hailed as the first non-Indian and only the second non-Tata to lead the Tata Group, but in fact, he was deeply rooted in Mumbai society and married into the Tata family.

In addition to being an Irish citizen of Indian descent, his mother's sister was married to a cousin of Pallonji Mistry. One of Cyrus Mistry's sisters married Noel Tata, Ratan Tata's half-brother, and a leading executive in the Tata Group. After marrying the daughter of an Indian lawyer named Iqbal Chagla, Cyrus had two sons who began their education in Mumbai as their father had.

Cyrus Mistry was hailed in much of the Indian news media as the first non-Indian and only the second non-Tata to lead the Tata Group, but in fact, he was thoroughly immersed in Mumbai society and was closely connected by marriage to the Tatas.

Cyrus Mistry left Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. when he was made deputy chairman of the Tata Group. The Tata Group boasted more than 100 companies when Cyrus Mistry was appointed, including Jaguar Land Rover and the Corus Group, a major European steel producer. It was his responsibility to streamline the Tata group's structure, consolidate related businesses, and open up management positions to non-family members.

In 2012, he officially succeeded Ratan Tata as chairman of the Tata Group and served in the post until 2016.

He was abruptly dismissed due to disagreements with members of the Tata family over business strategy. Mistry challenged his removal in court, accusing the board of mismanagement and of oppressing minority shareholders.

The National Company Law Tribunal rejected his petition, but that decision was overturned by India’s National Company Law Appellate Tribunal in 2019. Two years later India’s Supreme Court upheld Mistry’s dismissal.

(Bio courtesy: Britannica Encyclopedia)