MUMBAI: After clawing back control over Tata Trusts with the unprecedented ouster of the rebellious trustee Mehli Mistry late last month, chairman Noel Tata has managed to get his son Neville Tata and Tata group veteran Bhaskar Bhat inducted into the board of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT), one of the two key trusts that own 52% of the 66.6% stake in Tata Sons.
At a board meeting held Tuesday, the trustees also revised vice-chairman Venu Srinivasan's tenure from a life term to three years, following a Maharashtra government rule. Srinivasan is one of the two trusts nominees on the board of Tata Sons.
Both the appointments are for three years, effective from November 12.
The 32-year-old Neville, the youngest of the three children of Noel and Aloo (sister of the late Cyrus Mistry) Tata, is a Bayes Business School graduate who joined Trent, which is chaired by his father, in 2016.
Noel’s two daughters Leah (39) and Maya (36) Tata also are present on the boards of all the smaller trusts, and Neville is the first to be inducted into a key trust.
In a rare public statement issued Tuesday, the trusts said the board of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust has unanimously appointed Neville and Bhat for three years and also reduced Srinivasan's tenure from a life term to three years, in accordance with the extant Maharashtra government rules limiting the number of lifetime trustees.
The move strengthens Neville’s position within the Tata ecosystem. After joining Trent, Neville initially managing the packaged foods and beverages vertical, and later led Zudio, the value fashion brand that has emerged as one of the fastest-growing apparel formats in the country now.
Currently he serves on the boards of the JRD Tata Trust, Tata Social Welfare Trust, and RD Tata Trust, and could also be inducted into the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) later.
The 71-year-old Bhaskar Bhat is an IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, and began his career at Godrej & Boyce in 1978 before joining the Tata Watch Project, which later became Titan.
As its managing director from 2002 to 2019, he expanded Titan's portfolio beyond watches into eyewear, jewellery, fragrances, accessories, and sarees, and made it the group's second-largest listed firm at that time in terms of market value.
Established in 1892 by the group founder Jamsetji Tata, the dozen-odd Tata Trusts are the oldest and amongst Asia's largest philanthropic institutions, playing a pioneering role in bringing about an enduring difference in the lives of the communities they serve, advancing equity, resilience, and shared progress. The trusts also run the country’s largest cancer hospital as Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai with branches in many other cities.
Tata Trusts also works towards sustainable changes across diverse areas by building institutions, strengthening public systems, and accelerating socioeconomic development in a wide variety of areas--healthcare; nutrition; education; water, sanitation and hygiene; urban and rural livelihoods, amongst others.