The Indian owners of Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Sons, has named the London-educated Cyrus Mistry as the replacement for its influential boss Ratan Tata.
Mr Mistry, a construction tycoon, has a civil engineering degree from Imperial College and also studied science in management at London Business School.
His links to Britain will help to reassure the 50,000 workers Tata Sons now employs in the UK after Mr Tata led the multi-billion pound acquisitions over the last few years of Jaguar Land Rover, Corus – now known as Tata Steel – and Tetley Tea.
Mr Tata is a known Anglophile and has a home in London. He has overseen a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of JLR and is backing a £1.5bn-a-year investment drive in research and development.
Mr Mistry will become chairman of Indian conglomerate Tata Sons when Mr Tata retires next December. He has initially been appointed deputy chairman to work alongside Mr Tata for a year before assuming full control.
The appointment ends an 18-month worldwide search for a successor to Mr Tata, who is one of India's best-known businessman but has no children or natural heir.
Mr Mistry, 43, is the son of Pallonji Mistry, the largest individual shareholder of Tata Sons with a stake of 18pc, and has been a director of Tata Sons since 2006.
Lord Bhattacharyya, the British-based founder of Warwick Manufacturing Group and the independent member of the five-man Tata Sons selection committee, said Mr Mistry was also an Anglophile and a "very worthy successor" to Mr Tata.
"I looked at it [the selection process] from the point of view of Tata's investment in the UK," he added. "This is an excellent appointment for JLR and the leadership under Ratan will continue."
Lord Bhattacharyya said Mr Mistry's family shareholding in Tata Sons had "never been taken into account", although his past links with the company means he understands its culture.
The Indian-born Mr Mistry said he was "deeply honoured", while Mr Tata said it is a "good and far-sighted choice".
source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/engineering/8909995/Tata-names-Cyrus-Mistry-as-new-boss.html
43-year-old Cyrus Mistry is the son of construction tycoon Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry. Valued at $8.8 billion, Pallonji holds an 18.5 per cent stake in Tata Sons, making him the single largest shareholder.
Cyrus is the younger son of Pallonji and is married to Rohika Chagla, the daughter of lawyer Iqbal Chagla. He has an elder brother - Shapoor Mistry and one of his sisters is married to Noel Tata, Ratan Tata's half-brother.
Cyrus has been a director of Tata Sons since September 1, 2006.
Mr Mistry also serves as Senior Vice President of Production of DQ Entertainment Plc. He serves as Senior Vice President of Business Development and Technology at DQ Entertainment (International) Limited. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Shapoorji Pallonji Group and Afcons Infrastructure Limited.
He has over 22 years of experience in the Indian entertainment industry in the fields of filmmaking and animation, technical and production pipeline management. He has been a Non-executive Director of Forbes Gokak Limited since June 23, 2003.
He was associated with Convergence Media Private Limited India, as Senior Vice President - Operations and Planning and UTV Toons India. Mistry serves as Director of following companies: Forvol International Services Ltd, Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. Ltd, Cyrus Investments Ltd, Shapoorji Pallonji Power Co. Ltd, Buildbazaar Technologies (India) Pvt Ltd, Sterling Investment Corporation Pvt. Ltd, Samalpatti Power Co. Pvt. Ltd, Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. (Rajkot) Pvt. Ltd, Shapoorji Pallonji Finance Ltd, Shapoorji Pallonji Infrastructure Capital Co. Ltd, Oman Shapoorji Construction Co. Ltd and Muscat Pallonji Shapoorji & Co. Pvt. Ltd.
He served as a Director of Tata Elxsi Limited, from September 24, 1990 to October 26, 2009 and was a Director of Tata Power Co. Ltd until September 18, 2006.
Mr Mistry is Fellow of the Institute of Civil Engineers. Cyrus Mistry holds BE (Civil Engineering) from Imperial College, London and Master of Science in Management from London Business School. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Mumbai University