Tata group`s five chairmen since 1868

Cyrus Mistry to succeed Ratan Tata

The next chairman of India`s venerable salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group will be an insider and a family member by marriage. India`s biggest corporate house had mounted a global search that lasted more than a year for a successor to Chairman Ratan Tata, but ended up tapping Cyrus Mistry, whose father is the biggest shareholder in the Tata Sons holding company. Mistry, 43, was named deputy chairman of Tata Sons and will succeed Ratan Tata when he retires in December 2012 at the helm of a sprawling conglomerate that generates two-thirds of its USD 83 billion in revenue from overseas. Mistry is the younger son of Pallonji Mistry, who with a stake of 18 percent is the single largest shareholder of Tata Sons, and has been a director of Tata Sons since 2006. The future chairman`s sister is married to Ratan Tata`s half-brother Noel Tata, who was also a candidate to be Tata chairman. An engineer by training, Mistry is managing director of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, a major construction firm that has been in business for 147 years, and does not have a high public profile. Pallonji Mistry, also a member of south Mumbai`s Parsi community, owns about 18 percent of the group, and ranks 9th on the last Forbes India rich list, with a fortune estimated at USD 7.6 billion.