New Delhi: The decision by Tata Trusts, which control nearly 52% market share of Tata Sons, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust, will be an important for the governance and stability of the country’s biggest business house. Traditionally, leadership positions in the trusts have remained closely linked to the Tata family and Parsi community as well.
Successful members including industrialist Venu Srinivasan of TVS and Vijay Singh, a former defense secretary, is a vice chairman of the company but not in contention for the top spot who can actually replace Ratan Tata space. According to the reports the candidate who has ability to succeed Ratan Tata and can actively manage Tata Sons has remained no other than Noel Tata, a half-brother of the current chairman and present chairman of Trent. The 67-year-old appointment will fit the bill because there is always community preference for family leadership. Noel has been associated with the Tata Group since more than four decades and recently took office as trustee for the Sir Ratan Tata Trust. If everything goes right, he would be the 11th chairman of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the sixth chairman of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, if confirmed.
The decision over Noel or any other possible candidate would then be taken by a consensus of the 13 trustees, which includes some influential figures who are more likely to know about succession issues like Mehli Mistry, who is a close associate of Ratan Tata, and Darius Khambata, a senior lawyer who advised him on succession issues. Although Noel may well be one of the strong contenders compared to others.
No less promising for leading roles in the future are Noel’s children, Maya, Leah, and Neville. Leah is already engaged with Indian Hotels Company. Maya worked at Tata Capital and was part of Tata’s launch of its Tata Neu app. Neville heads Star Bazaar after his education in London.
More interestingly, there are now speculations about whether an outsider could be appointed to this position. Mehli Mistry would easily fit the bill as he is known closely to Ratan Tata and has been with the group for a long time.
