TCS CEO Natarajan Chandrasekaran named new Chairman of Tata Sons

Tata Sons on Thursday named Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO Natarajan Chandrasekaran as the new Chairman of the company, replacing interim boss Ratan Tata and the ousted Cyrus Mistry.

New Delhi: Tata Sons on Thursday named Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO Natarajan Chandrasekaran as the new Chairman of the company, replacing interim boss Ratan Tata.

Popularly known as 'Chandra', the 54-year-old was chosen to step into the shoes of interim Chairman Ratan Tata, who took over on October 24 last year after the removal of Mistry.

The decision was taken by the board of Tata Sons during a meeting held today headed by the interim boss Ratan Tata, as per reports.

Meanwhile, Rajesh Gopinathan will replace him as the head of TCS.

Chandrasekaran joined TCS in 1987 and was appointed the CEO of the Tata group's 'crown jewel', software firm TCS in 2009 taking over the helm on October 6 of the same year.

He was appointed as a Director on the board of Tata Sons on October 25, 2016, a day after Mistry's removal.

Born in 1963, he is one of the youngest CEOs of the Tata Group.

Under his leadership TCS has generated consolidated revenues of US $16.5 billion in 2015-16 with the third-quarter result of the company for the FY 2016-17 rising 10 percent to a net profit Rs 6,778 crore.

Chandrasekaran was selected as the chairman of the Tata Sons from a list of high-profile names that included Indra Nooyi, the head of PepsiCo Inc, Arun Sarin, the former head of Vodafone Group, and Noel Tata, chairman of the Tata retail unit Trent.

The appointment of Chandrasekaran comes more than a month before the deadline of February 24 for the five-member to find a new chairman.

Chandra's appointment as Tata Sons Chairman also comes at a time when the company is fighting a legal battle at the National Company Law Tribunal with Mistry, who has challenged his ouster.

Yesterday, Mistry family-owned two investment firms had filed a contempt application at NCLT against move by Tata Sons to remove him as director and sought an order to restrain the company from going ahead with its planned EGM on February 6 called to remove him.

The search for the new chairman of the company began when Cyrus Mistry was ousted as the chief of the company on October 24, a move that took the corporate world by surprise.

Following the removal of Mistry, the board had also named a five-member panel comprising of Ratan Tata, TVS Group head Venu Srinivasan, Amit Chandra of Bain Capital, former diplomat Ronen Sen and Lord Kumar Bhattacharya to look for a replacement of Cyrus Mistry within four months.