Ratan N. Tata
Ratan N. Tata
Mr. Tata was the Chairman of the major Tata companies, including Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels and Tata Teleservices and during his tenure, the group’s revenues grew manifold, totaling over $100 billion in 2011-12.
Mr. Tata is the Chairman of the Tata Trusts which are amongst India’s oldest, nonsectarian philanthropic organizations that work in several areas of community development. He is also the Chairman of the Council of Management of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He serves on the International Council of JP Morgan Chase and is Presidential Councillor and Trustee Emeritus of Cornell University and Life Trustee of the University of Southern California.
Mr. Tata joined the Tata group in 1962. After serving in various companies, he was appointed Director-in-charge of the National Radio & Electronics Company Limited in 1971. In 1981, he was named Chairman of Tata Industries, the group’s other holding company, where he was responsible for transforming it into a group strategy think-tank, and a promoter of new ventures in high technology businesses.
Mr. Tata received a B.Arch. degree from Cornell in 1962. He worked briefly with Jones and Emmons in Los Angeles before returning to India in late 1962. He completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1975.
The Government of India honored Mr. Tata with its second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2008. He has been appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and the Rockefeller Foundation has conferred him with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Among his other achievements, Mr. Tata is also an honorary fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Royal Academy of Engineering and a foreign associate of National Academy of Engineering. He has received honorary doctorates from several universities in India and overseas.