Ratan Naval Tata

Ratan Naval Tata (born 28 December 1937) is the present chairman of Tata Sons and therefore, Tata Group. He is also the chairman of major Tata companies such as Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Tea, Tata Chemicals, The Indian Hotels Company and Tata Teleservices.

Early life and education

Ratan Tata was born to Naval Tata and Soonoo Commisariat in the Tata family, a prominent family belonging to the Parsi community. He is the great-grandson of Tata group founder Jamsedji Tata.

After his parents separated in 1944, he was brought up by his grandmother Lady Navajbai and did his schooling in Mumbai from Campion School. Later, he enrolled in Cornell University, where he earned a B.S in architecture with structural engineering in 1962, and has also completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School (Class of 1975).

Career at Tata Sons

When he returned to India in 1962 after turning down a job with IBM on the advice of JRD, he was sent to Jamshedpur to work on the shop floor at Tata Steel with other blue-collar employees, shovelling limestone and handling the blast furnace.In 1971, he was appointed the Director of National Radio and Electronics (Nelco), which was in dire straits when he came on board: with losses of 40% and barely 2% share of the consumer electronics market. However, just when he turned it around (from 2%...
Read More