Evolving Boardroom dynamics at Tata
Rising tensions within the Tata Group are a sobering reminder that the passing of a towering leader often brings latent fissures to the surface. After the death of Dhirubhai Ambani, the Reliance group saw an acrimonious split between his sons. In the Murugappa group, the death of MV Murugappan in 2017 was followed by a bitter family feud after his eldest daughter Valli Arunachalam sought a board seat in Ambadi Investments Ltd, the holding company.
Tata Trusts chair Noel Tata has reportedly floated a new leadership structure for Tata Sons, suggesting that the role of chairman be split into three positions—chief executive officer, managing director (CEO and MD), and deputy CEO. Currently, Tata Sons is led solely by Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran, whose term is scheduled to end in 2027. Chandrasekaran’s journey within the Tata Group spans over three decades. He joined Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in 1987 and rose through the ranks to become its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director (2009–2017). Under his leadership, TCS emerged as India’s most valuable company and one of the world’s leading IT services providers.
Tata Trusts has significant influence over Tata Sons, as it holds a majority stake (65.9%) in the company. Noel Tata took charge of Tata Trusts after the death of Ratan Tata last year.
Another emerging friction point is related to appointment of nominee directors on the Board of Tata Sons, the holding company of all the Tata Empire. The genesis of the differences that emerged on Thursday dates back to a key resolution the trustees passed in October 2024, when Noel Tata was appointed chairman, upon the demise of Ratan Tata. Trustees resolved then that Trusts-nominated directors on Tata Sons' board would have to be renewed every year, upon turning 75 years of age. This meant that Vijay Singh , 77, former defence secretary of India, who has been a nominee director since 2013 and a trustee of Tata Trusts since 2018, now needed to be reappointed to the Tata Sons board every year.
The power to appoint nominees to the board of Tata Sons is a key lever of control available to the trustees. The nominee directors hold a veto power on key decisions, according to Article 121 of the Tata Sons articles of association. Differences emerged when the four trustees who opposed Singh’s reappointment tried to nominate one of them—Mehli Mistry—to Tata Sons’ board. Srinivasan and Tata opposed the move, insisting that due process be followed in a manner befitting Tata values and the stature of the institutions involved. A key source of differences between trustees who are nominee directors on the Tata Sons board, and those who are not, is the cadence of sharing information from board meetings. Trustees who are not on the board of the company feel information shared by the nominee directors is inadequate. This has been a subject of simmering friction in recent months, and at least one trustee has accused nominee directors of keeping the rest of them in the dark.
