Ratan Tata, Chairman

Ratan N Tata has been Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, since 1991. He is the chairman of Tata Chemicals Ltd, along with several other Tata companies, including Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Tea, Indian Hotels, Tata Teleservices and Tata AutoComp Systems. During his tenure, the Group’s revenues have grown over ten-fold to annualised Group revenues of $62.5 billion.

Mr Tata joined the Tata Group in December 1962. After serving in various companies, he was appointed director-in-charge of The National Radio & Electronics Company Limited (NELCO) 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. He is also the chairman of two of the largest private sector promoted philanthropic trusts in India.

Mr Tata is associated with various organisations in India and abroad. He is chairman of the Government of India’s Investment Commission and a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry, the National Hydrogen Energy Board and the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council.

Mr Tata also serves on the International Investment Council set up by the president of the Republic of South Africa and the UK Prime Minister’s Business Council for Britain. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of Singapore’s Economic Development Board, the Asia-Pacific Advisory Committee to the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange and of the international advisory boards of the Mitsubishi Corporation, the American International Group, JP Morgan Chase and Rolls Royce. He also serves on the boards of Fiat SpA and Alcoa.

Mr Tata is president of the court of the Indian Institute of Science and chairman of the Council of Management of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He is a member of the board of trustees of Cornell University and the University of Southern California and of the Foundation Board of the Ohio State University. He is also a member of the Global Business Council on HIV/AIDS and the Programme Board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's India AIDS Initiative.

Mr Tata received a Bachelor of Science degree in architecture with structural engineering from Cornell University in 1962 and worked briefly with Jones and Emmons in Los Angeles before returning to India later that year. He completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1975.

The Government of India honoured Mr Tata with its second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2008. Earlier, in 2000, he had been awarded the Padma Bhushan. He has also been conferred an honorary doctorate in business administration by the Ohio State University, an honorary doctorate in technology by the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, an honorary doctorate in science by the University of Warwick, and an honorary fellowship by the London School of Economics.