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RIP Former chairman of Tata Sons Cyrus Mistry

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cyrus mistry, mistry, tata sons, sons, tata, palghar

It was very shocking to know that the former chairman of Tata Sons Cyrus Mistry has died in a road accident while en route from Ahmedabad to Mumbai. Mistry’s car hit a divider in Palghar district neighbouring Mumbai. The car was speeding and the driver lost his control. Mistry was travelling from Ahmedabad to Mumbai in a Mercedes car. He was travelling to Mumbai when the accident took place. The accident took place on a bridge over the Surya River. The accident occurred near the Gujarat-Maharashtra border. The other two people travelling with him, including the car driver, were injured. Others injured have been shifted to a hospital in Gujarat.

Cyrus Pallonji Mistry was an Indian-born Irish businessman. He was the chairman of Tata Group, an Indian business corporation, from 2012 to 2016. He was the sixth chairman of the group, and only the second (after Nowroji Saklatwala) to not bear the surname Tata. In mid-2012, he was chosen by a selection panel to head the Tata Group and took charge in December that year. In October 2016, the board of Tata Group’s holding company, Tata Sons, voted to remove Mistry from the post of chairman after offering him an opportunity to resign voluntarily. Former chairman Ratan Tata then returned as interim chairman, and Natarajan Chandrasekaran was named as the new chairman a few months later.

However, in December 2019, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) declared the appointment of Chandrasekaran as executive chairman illegal, and restored Mistry. However, the Supreme Court stayed NCLAT’s order on 10 January 2020. Mistry has filed a cross appeal in the court, seeking explanations for anomalies in the NCLAT. However, the Supreme Court upheld his dismissal.

He owned an 18.4% stake in Tata Sons, through his company, Cyrus Investments Pvt. Ltd. In 2018, his net worth was approximately $10 billion. He was a member of the National Integration Council. Mistry was born to a Parsi family in Bombay, the younger son of Indian billionaire and construction magnate Pallonji Mistry by his wife Patsy Perin Dubash. Both his parents belong to the Zoroastrian faith and have roots in India. However, Mistry’s mother was born in Ireland, and his father chose to take up Irish citizenship. Mistry has an elder brother, Shapoor Mistry, who is also an Irish citizen, and is married to Behroze Sethna, the daughter of Parsi lawyer Rusi Sethna. Mistry also has two sisters, Laila and Aloo. Laila is married to Rustom Jehangir, a London-based portfolio fund manager. Aloo is married to Noel Tata, the half-Indian-Parsi, half-French-Catholic half-brother of Ratan Tata.

The Pallonji family have been active in business for over a century, and it was in the 1930s that Mistry’s grandfather, Shapoorji Mistry, first gained a stake in Tata Sons. The stake, which now stands at 18.5%, was held by Mistry’s father, and comprises the largest block of shares held by a single party; charitable trusts set up by the family controlled some 66% stake in Tata Sons. Mistry grew up in affluent circumstances. He studied at the prestigious Cathedral & John Connon School in South Mumbai.

Mistry was married to Rohiqa Chagla, the daughter of lawyer Iqbal Chagla and granddaughter of jurist M.C. Chagla. Iqbal Chagla has strategized the course of action for Cyrus Mistry in the legal battle against Tata Sons. The couple have two sons, Firoz Mistry and Zahan Mistry. Mistry was an Irish citizen and a permanent resident of India (having acquired Overseas Citizenship of India). According to a news report in an Irish newspaper, The Independent, Mistry views himself as a global citizen.

Mistry joined the family construction company, Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. Ltd as a director in 1991. Mistry has been managing director of Shapoorji Pallonji & Company, which is part of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, and also chairman of Tata Sons and of the Tata Group. In a 2013 article, The Economist categorized him as “the most important industrialist in both India and Britain.

Mistry joined the board of Tata Sons on 1 September 2006, a year after his father retired from it. He served as a Director of Tata Elxsi Limited, from 24 September 1990 to 26 October 2009 and was a Director of Tata Power Co. Ltd until 18 September 2006.

In 2013, Mistry was appointed the chairman of Tata Sons. In addition, he was also chairman of all major Tata companies including Tata Industries, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Teleservices, Indian Hotels, Tata Global Beverages and Tata Chemicals. The Tata Sons Board voted to remove Mistry from the Chairmanship of Tata Sons on 24 October 2016.

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Vaidehi Taman
Vaidehi Tamanhttps://authorvaidehi.com
Vaidehi Taman an Accredited Journalist from Maharashtra is bestowed with three Honourary Doctorate in Journalism. Vaidehi has been an active journalist for the past 21 years, and is also the founding editor of an English daily tabloid – Afternoon Voice, a Marathi web portal – Mumbai Manoos, and The Democracy digital video news portal is her brain child. Vaidehi has three books in her name, "Sikhism vs Sickism", "Life Beyond Complications" and "Vedanti". She is an EC Council Certified Ethical Hacker, OSCP offensive securities, Certified Security Analyst and Licensed Penetration Tester that caters to her freelance jobs.
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