Tata Sons board may see new faces as two near exit
The board of Tata Sons is set for a refresh in the next 15 months as two directors retire to make way for new members, a period when the Tata group holding company aims to shed debt and stay private.
Bhaskar Bhat and Ralf Speth, who joined the board in 2017 and 2016, respectively, will hit Tata Sons’ mandatory retirement age of 70 over this year and next. Last month, Tata Sons’ 10-member board, chaired by Natarajan Chandrasekaran, gave a third threeyear term to independent director Harish Manwani, a former chief operating officer of Unilever Plc, an executive aware of the development said. Manwani, who joined the board in 2018, will continue until 2027.
Bhat, a former managing director of Titan Co. Ltd, will be the first to step down in August this year, when he turns 70. Bhat was inducted into the Tata Sons board in an acknowledgment of his contribution in building the Tata group’s watch and jewellery business from 1 April 2002 until he retired on 30 September 2019.
Speth, chief executive officer of group company Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc between 2010 and 2020, will retire in September 2025. Incidentally, Speth joined the board of Tata Sons in October 2016 along with Chandrasekaran, who was named the company’s chair in January 2017.
T.V. Narendran, a former CEO of Tata Steel Ltd, is among names that may be considered for directorship, the executive cited above said. “As a policy, CEOs of operating companies are inducted on the board of Tata Sons. Eventually, it is the decision of the chair Chandra and the NRC (Nomination and Remuneration Committee), but Narendran