Noel Tata, the half-brother of Ratan Tata, has been appointed Chairman of Tata Trusts, following a board meeting held in Mumbai today. Noel succeeds Ratan Tata who died at the age of 86 in a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday.
Ratan Tata's death marked the end of an era in Indian business, where a man reshaped the country's industrial landscape and catapulted his family-owned conglomerate into a global powerhouse.
Noel Tata has been a key figure in Tata Group's growth since he joined in the early 2000s. He was appointed Chairman of Tata Trust today following a meeting of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and the Dorabji Tata Trust.
Noel Tata is the vice chairman of Tata Steel and watch company Titan. His mother Simone Tata, a French-Swiss Catholic who is Ratan Tata's stepmother, is currently chairman of Trent, Voltas, Tata Investment Corporation, and Tata International. He was educated at Sussex University in the UK and having completed an International Executive Programme (IEP) at INSEAD.
READ | Who Is Noel Tata, Tata Trust’s New Chairman?
Noel Tata's most prominent role before this new appointment was as Managing Director of Tata International Ltd, the group's trading and distribution arm. Under his leadership from 2010 to 2021, the company grew from a turnover of $500 million to over $3 billion, proving his ability to drive growth in a highly competitive environment.
As Managing Director of Trent Ltd, Tata's retail arm, he expanded its operations from a single store in 1998 to over 700 stores across various formats.
Tata Trusts is the umbrella body that manages the functions of all 14 Tata Trust.
The ownership of Tata Sons is largely held by two key trusts – the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, which together comprise over 50 per cent of the ownership.
Tata Trust at present has Venu Srinivasan, Vijay Singh, and Mehli Mistry as executive committee members.
Ratan Tata's younger brother, Jimmy, is not involved in the family business and lives in a modest two-bedroom apartment in south Mumbai's Colaba.
Born in a traditional Parsi family in 1937, Ratan Tata was brought up by his grandmother after his parents, Naval and Sooni Tata, divorced when he was 10.
