Board of Directors

Cyrus Mistry
(Non-Independent, Non-Executive Chairman)

Cyrus Mistry is a graduate in Civil Engineering from Imperial College, UK and has an MSc in Management from London Business School. Mistry has been associated with the Shapoorji Pallonji Group since 1994. Under his guidance, Shapoorji Pallonji’s construction business has grown from a turnover of US $20 million to approximately US $1.5 billion, with a presence in over 10 countries. He joined the Board of Tata Sons Limited in 2006 and is presently the Executive Chairman. He is also Director of Tata Industries Limited, The Tata Power Company Limited, Tata Teleservices Limited, Tata Steel Limited, Tata Motors Limited and Tata Chemicals Limited.

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S Ramadorai
(Non-Independent, Non-Executive Vice Chairman)

In February 2011, S Ramadorai stepped into public service when the Indian Government appointed him as the Advisor to the Prime Minister in the National Skill Development Council, in the rank of Cabinet Minister. The Council, which is headed by the Prime Minister, seeks to develop a strategy for skill development at the national level with a view to address the skill deficit.

Ramadorai continues as the Vice Chairman of TCS, a company he has been associated with for the past 39 years. He took over as CEO in 1996 when the company’s revenue was $160 million and has since then led the company through some of its most exciting phases, including its going public in 2004. In October 2009, he stepped down as CEO, leaving a $6 billion global IT services company to his successor, while he took over the mantle of Vice Chairmanship of the company. Today, the company’s revenue stands at $11.6 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, with an employee base of over 276,000 of the world’s best-trained IT consultants in 44 countries.

Ramadorai is also the chairman of other Tata companies - Tata Elxsi Ltd, Tata Technologies Ltd, CMC Ltd and CRL Ltd. He is on the boards of a number of non-Tata companies and educational institutions - Tata Industries, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Bombay Stock Exchange and the MIT Sloan School of Management (EMSAB).

In recognition of Ramadorai’s commitment and dedication to the IT industry he was awarded the Padma Bhushan (India's third-highest civilian honor) in January 2006. In April 2009, he was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to Indo-British economic relations.

Ramadorai’s academic credentials include a Bachelors degree in Physics from Delhi University (India), a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (India) and a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of California - UCLA (USA). In 1993, Ramadorai attended the Sloan School of Management’s highly acclaimed Senior Executive Development Program.

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Clayton M Christensen
(Independent, Non-Executive Director)

Clayton M Christensen is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, with a joint appointment in the Technology & Operations Management and General Management faculty groups. His research and teaching interests center on managing innovation and creating new growth markets.

Prof. Christensen holds a BA with highest honors in economics from Brigham Young University (1975), and an MPhil in applied econometrics and the economics of less-developed countries from Oxford University (1977), as a Rhodes Scholar. He received an MBA with High Distinction from the Harvard Business School in 1979, graduating as a George F Baker Scholar. He was awarded his DBA from the Harvard Business School in 1992.

A seasoned entrepreneur, Christensen has founded three successful companies. The first, CPS Corporation, is an advanced materials manufacturing company that he founded in 1984 with several MIT professors. The second, Innosight, is a consulting and training company focused on problems of strategy, innovation and growth that Christensen founded with several of his former students in 2000. The third, Innosight Capital, was launched in 2005. From 1979 to 1984, he worked with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In 1982, Professor Christensen was named a White House Fellow and served as assistant to US Transportation Secretaries Drew Lewis and Elizabeth Dole.

Prof. Christensen became a faculty member at the Harvard Business School in 1992. He is the author/co-author of seven books:

• The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997), which received the Global Business Book Award for the best business book published in 1997
• The Innovator’s Solution (2003), which was also a New York Times best seller
• Seeing What's Next (2004)
• Innovation and the General Manager (1999)
• Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, 4th edition (2004)
• The Innovator’s Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care (2009), which won the 2010 James A Hamilton Book of the Year Award presented by American College of Healthcare Executives
• Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (2008)

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Aman Mehta
(Independent, Non-Executive Director)

Aman Mehta was born in New Delhi in 1946. After graduating from Delhi University with an economics degree in 1967, he joined the Bombay office of Mercantile Bank Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.

Following training in the bank’s London office, Mehta returned to the group’s operations in India. Since 1969, he has held a number of assignments throughout the bank, including appointments in operations, credit, branch and area management, and merchant banking. In 1985, he was appointed Manager Corporate Planning at The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation’s headquarters in Hong Kong. In January 1988, he moved to Riyadh to take up the post of Managing Director of The Saudi British Bank, a 40 percent owned associate of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

In May 1991, Mehta was appointed Group General Manager. Following a brief strategic planning assignment in North America, he was appointed General Manager International in February 1992 with responsibility for overseas subsidiaries.

In January 1993, Mehta took up the appointment of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HSBA USA Inc., the New York-based arm of HSBC Holdings plc set up to exercise oversight of the group companies in the Americas, before being appointed, in November 1995, as Deputy Chairman of HSBC Bank Middle East, based in Dubai with responsibility for the group’s operations in the Middle East region.

Mehta was re-appointed General Manager International of HSBC in February 1998, Executive Director International in May 1998 and Chief Executive Officer in January 1999. Mehta also became Chairman of HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad on January 1, 1999, and a Director of HSBC Bank Australia Limited.

Mehta retired from HSBC wef December 31, 2003 and has returned to live in New Delhi on permanent resettlement, with a second home in New York. He is an independent non-executive director of several public companies in India as well as overseas. These include the following companies:

• PCCW Limited, Hong Kong
• Raffles Holdings Limited, Singapore
• Wockhardt Limited, Mumbai
• Tata Consultancy Services Limited, Mumbai
• Jet Airways (India) Limited, Mumbai
• Vedanta Resources plc, London
• Max Healthcare Institute Limited, New Delhi
• Godrej Consumer Products Limited, Mumbai
• Cairn India Limited, Delhi

In addition, Mehta is a member of the Governing Board of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi. He is also a Member of the Advisory Council of INSEAD, France. Mehta is married and has two children.

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Dr. Ron Sommer
(Independent, Non-Executive Director)

Dr. Ron Sommer was Chairman of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom AG, a telecommunication company, from May 1995 until he retired in July 2002.

He is Director of Motorola, Muenchener Rueckversicherung, Sistema, Weather Investments and TCS, and a member of the International Advisory Board of The Blackstone Group.

Dr. Sommer received a PhD degree in Mathematics from the University of Vienna, Austria.

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Venkatraman Thyagarajan
(Independent, Non-Executive Director)

Venkatraman Thyagarajan (Thyagi) is responsible for the GlaxoSmithKline operations in Asia Pacific and is based at the company’s headquarters in Singapore. Prior to his current position, Thyagarajan served as Vice President of South Asia, since 2001. He has served on the Board of Glaxo India since 1992 and began his tenure as Managing Director in 1994. He is now the Vice Chairman of GlaxoSmithKline India.

A true veteran of GlaxoSmithKline, Thyagarajan has been with the company for over 34 years. He began his career as a management trainee for Glaxo India in September 1970. Thyagarajan has held numerous senior positions throughout his career including Marketing Consultant for Europe; Area Marketing Director for Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe; and the Area Director for South East Asia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Taiwan.

Thyagarajan received a BTech (Elec) and holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Thyagarajan is married to Anuradha and they have two daughters. He is a keen tennis player and music enthusiast.

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Dr. Vijay Kelkar
(Independent, Non-Executive Director)

A PhD in development economics from the University of California at Berkeley, he joined the senior faculty of the Administrative Staff College of India in Hyderabad. After a brief stint as a teacher in Nepal, Dr. Kelkar joined the Planning Commission in 1973. From the Planning Commission, Dr. Kelkar joined the Commerce Ministry in 1977 as Economic Adviser, and has since then served in various posts including secretary to the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister between 1985 and 1988. In 1994, he came back to the government as petroleum secretary. He was made finance secretary in 1998. He was an executive director in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), overseeing its operations in South Asia during 2000-2002.

Dr. Kelkar’s experience is wide and varied.

In the Government of India, Dr. Kelkar has just retired as Chairman, Finance Commission, in the rank of a Union Cabinet Minister. He was in this position since January 2008. He has held several other key posts:

• Advisor to Minister of Finance, Government of India in the rank of a Minister of State, from August 2002 to September 2004
• Finance Secretary, Government of India, 1998-1999
• Chairman, Tariff Commission, Government of India, 1997-1998
• Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India, 1994-1997

Internationally, Dr. Kelkar was Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan from 1999-2002; and Director and Coordinator, International Trade Division of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Geneva, Switzerland, 1991-1994.

In other functions with the Government of India, Dr. Kelkar sat as Chairman, Task Force for Implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budgement Act, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, 2004; Chairman, Task Force on Direct Taxes, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, 2002; and Chairman, Task Force on Indirect Taxes, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, 2002.

Dr. Vijay Kelkar has been elected Chairman of the board of the Forum of Federations beginning January 1, 2010.

He is also the Chairman, Board of Trustees of India Development Foundation (IDF). IDF conducts research on various issues of the economy, seeking to address the issue of selling reforms to a larger constituency.

He has also held important positions in the private sector, such as Chairman, Advisory Council, Citi Group, 2005- 2007; Member, Board of Directors, Tata Chemicals Ltd, Mumbai, 2004- 2007; and Member, Board of Directors, Jet Airways, Mumbai, 2004-2007.

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Ishaat Hussain
(Non-Independent, Non-Executive Director)

Ishaat Hussain joined the Board of Tata Sons as an Executive Director on July 1, 1999, and is Finance Director of Tata Sons Ltd. beginning July 28, 2000. Prior to joining Tata Sons, he was the Senior Vice President and Executive Director – Finance in Tata Steel for almost 10 years.

Born on September 2, 1947, Hussain completed his schooling from The Doon School in 1963 to join St. Stephens College Delhi to do his graduation in Economics. A chartered accountant from England and Wales, Ishaat Hussain attended the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School. He joined the board of the Indian Tube Company (a Tata Steel associate company) in 1981. Thereafter, he moved to Tata Steel in 1983 after Indian Tube was merged with Tata Steel.

Besides being on the board of Tata Sons Limited, he is Chairman of Voltas Limited and Tata Sky Limited. He is also on the boards of several Tata Companies such as Tata Steel, Tata Industries, Tata Teleservices, Titan Industries Limited.

In April 2005, Hussain was appointed a member of the Board of Trade, and in November 2006, he was appointed a Public Interest Director of Bombay Stock Exchange Limited. In January 2008, he was appointed a Trustee on the board of India Foundation for the Arts (IFA).

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Phiroz A Vandrevala
(Non-Independent, Non-Executive Director) 

As the Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Diligenta, a subsidiary of TCS focused on the life & pensions industry, Phiroz Vandrevala is responsible for driving the business strategy and operations of the organization and opportunities globally. Phiroz is also a Director on the Board of TCS, the global leader in IT services, consulting and business solutions and part of the senior leadership team.

With over 25 years of consulting and leadership experience with TCS, including as an executive director of the company since 2007, Phiroz had been involved with TCS’ foray into the life & pensions industry from the outset. He has overseen the transformation of Diligenta as the company offers new, effective solutions for the life & pensions industry using the TCS BaNCS platform.

Prior to taking the leadership role at Diligenta, Phiroz was the Executive Director and Head, Global Corporate Affairs at TCS and played a prominent part in many industry initiatives as a former chairman and executive council member of the National Association of Software Companies (Nasscom), India’s apex IT industry body.

In the banking & financial services sector, Phiroz has been part of numerous expert committees constituted by the Reserve Bank of India to guide the central bank in its policy-making efforts as well as IT advisory bodies in India and on the board of several prominent educational institutions. He is also the Director of Punj Lloyd Ltd. and a member of the firm’s audit committee. He is also Director of Jubilant FoodWorks Limited.

Phiroz was the Co-Chair of the Indo-British Partnership (IBP) for over five years and is a board member of the Indo-British Partnership Network.

Phiroz graduated from Calcutta and is a qualified chartered accountant. He worked with consumer goods firm ITC Ltd. for three years before joining TCS in 1982. In 1989, he set up Tandem Corporation’s operations in India before rejoining TCS in 1992. He has played many roles in all these years at TCS.

He was born in Calcutta in December 1953 and currently lives in London with his wife Shashi.

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OP Bhatt
(Independent, Non-Executive Director)

OP Bhatt is a graduate in Science and a post graduate in English Literature (Gold Medal). His last assignment, from July 1, 2006 to March 31, 2011, was as Chairman, State Bank Group, which includes State Bank of India, India’s largest commercial bank; five associate banks in India; five overseas banks; SBI Life, the country’s largest private life insurer; SBI Capital Markets, India’s leading investment bank; SBI Fund Management; and other subsidiaries spanning diverse activities, from general insurance to custodial services. He served as Chairman of Indian Banks’ Association, the apex body of Indian banks. He also served as India’s economic diplomacy as government’s nominee on the India-US CEO Forum, Indo-French CEO Forum and Indo-Russia CEO Forum, forging links with a cross section of the world’s business leaders.

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N Chandrasekaran
(Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director)

Natarajan Chandrasekaran (“Chandra”) is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services, a leading global IT solutions and consulting firm with consolidated revenues of US $11.6 billion for year ended March 31, 2013. During his tenure as the chief executive since October 2009, the company has grown at a compounded annual rate of 21 per cent.

Responsible for formulating the company’s global strategy across its footprint of 44 countries, Chandra has led TCS to great success with the market capitalization of the company touching USD 50 billion during 2012. TCS was consistently ranked throughout 2012 as the most valuable company in India. With over 276,000 consultants, TCS has become the largest private sector employers in India with the highest retention rate in a globally competitive industry.

Chandra personifies TCS’ commitment to customer satisfaction and high quality. Through his experience in a variety of operating roles, he has built a reputation in the IT industry for his exceptional ability to build and grow new business offerings and nurture long-term relationships. He has also been at the helm of several key strategic transitions at TCS including architecting, as Chief Operating Officer, the new organization structure unveiled in 2008, which created multiple agile business units within TCS that were focused on industries and markets.

He has been behind several strategic new business initiatives at TCS and displayed the ability to mature new ideas. The company has added new business lines and entered new industry verticals like Media & Information Services, Mobile & Digital services, and High Tech under his watch. All of these have since matured into sizeable businesses since then.

Under his guidance and mentorship, the company has refined its corporate sustainability program to focus on education, environment and wellness. The firm has created healthcare solutions for charitable hospitals to help them improve the level of patient-care more effectively and use their resources to treat more patients who cannot afford healthcare. Through his active support of major marathons in New York, Amsterdam, Chicago, Boston and Mumbai, he has spread a message of health awareness across employees globally as well as in the communities the firm operates in.

Chandra represents TCS on several global and local forums. He is the chairman of the National Association of Software & Service Companies (NASSCOM) for 2012-2013. He joined TCS in 1987 after completing his Masters in Computer Applications from Regional Engineering College, Trichy, Tamil Nadu in 1986 and a Bachelor of Science in Applied Science from the Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu. The SRM University has conferred the Degree of Doctor of Literature (2010) on Chandra for his pioneering and outstanding contributions to the industry.

Chandra has received several awards and recognition in the business community in 2012. He was judged as the “Business Leader of the Year” by NDTV. He won the “Best CEO of the Year” award at the Forbes India Leadership Awards 2012 and was awarded the Outstanding Business leader of the year at the CNBC’s India Business Leadership Awards. He was also awarded “Asia Business Leader Award of the year” by CNBC Asia Business Leaders Awards 2012. Chandra was also named the “Pathfinder CEO” of 2012 by National HRD Network (NHRDN)

He was also awarded the Medal of the City of Amsterdam - Frans Banninck Coqc medal in recognition of his endeavor to promote trade and economic relations between Amsterdam and India.

Beyond the office, Chandra is an avid photographer and a passionate long-distance runner and has completed marathons in Mumbai, New York, Prague, Stockholm, Vienna, Chicago and Berlin.

Born in 1963, Chandra lives in Mumbai, with his wife Lalitha and son Pranav.

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