Tata Sons on Thursday named Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO and MD Natarajan Chandrasekaran as its new chairman, over two months after the unceremonious sacking of Cyrus Mistry.
Chandrasekaran will take over from interim Chairman Ratan Tata, who had stepped in after Mistry's exit, on February 21.
The decision to appoint Chandra, as he is referred in close circles, was taken at a board meeting of Tata Sons, held in Bombay House today evening.
The company had formed a five-member search committee comprising of Ratan Tata, TVS Group head Venu Srinivasan, Amit Chandra of Bain Capital, former diplomat Ronen Sen and Lord Kumar Bhattacharya for the selection of new Chairman of the USD 103 billion salt-to-software conglomerate.
Here are 10 key facts about one of the most powerful executives in India:
1. At 54-year-old Chandra is one of the youngest CEOs of the Tata Group.
2. Chandrasekaran will be the first non-Parsi to head the Tata Group's global empire in its 148-year history.
3. Chandra was born in 1963 and has five siblings. His father Srinivasan Natarajan was a lawyer by profession but also managed the family farm. He was leader of the class and captain of the badminton team.
4. He joined TCS in 1987 after completing Masters in Computer Applications from Regional Engineering College, Trichy (now NIT Tiruchirappalli). He has a Bachelor of Science in Applied Science from the Coimbatore Institute of Technology. The company at that time had 500 employees and now has a workforce of over 3 lakh.
5. Chandrasekaran took over as the CEO and Managing Director (MD) of TCS on October 6, 2009. Before that he was the Executive Director of the company since 6 September 2007. He has also served as the chief operating officer at the firm.
6. Under his leadership, TCS generated consolidated revenues of USD 16.5 billion in 2015-16. The company remains the most valuable IT company in India as of 2015-16 with a market capitalisation of over USD 70 billion.
7. He has been non-official director of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) since 5 March 2016.
8. He has been additional director of Tata Sons Ltd since 25 October 2016.
9. An avid photographer, he is also a passionate long-distance runner and completed several marathons around the world, including Amsterdam, Boston, Chicago, Berlin, Mumbai, New York, Prague, Stockholm, Salzburg and Tokyo. Under his leadership, TCS sponsors several marathons around the world including New York's, the largest marathon in the world.
10. He currently resides in Mumbai, with his wife Lalitha and their son, Pranav.
