Chandra takes over as Tata Sons’ Chairman

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 21

Natarajan Chandrasekaran today took over as the Chairman of the Tata Group and in his first message cited three strategic priorities for the group, including better shareholder returns, reinforcing a leader’s mindset in group companies and tighter resource allocation.

These have been some of the areas where the Tata Group has been criticised in the past and Chandrasekaran in his previous role as CEO of TCS has delivered strong value creation.

Chandra, as he is popularly known, today chaired his first Board meeting as Chairman of Tata Sons Limited, the principal investment holding company for more than 100 Tata operating companies.

In a statement, Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, said, “I welcome Chandra, who has successfully displayed his leadership in his career at TCS. I am sure he will bring considerable value to his leadership role in the Tata Group in the years ahead.”

The new Tata Group chairman has outlined three strategic priorities in his new role. “Bring the group closer together to leverage its enormous collective strength; reinforce a leader’s mindset among the operating companies and drive world-class operating performances across the group; bring greater rigour to our capital allocation policies and deliver superior returns to our shareholders”.

Chandrasekaran said after the Board meeting, “We will work together to deliver business performance which is industry leading in all our businesses, and lead and not follow.” The new Tata group chief takes over a day after TCS announced a Rs 16,000-crore buyback offer for shareholders.