Ishaat Hussain replaces Cyrus Mistry as TCS Chairman

Tata Sons has appointed Ishaat Hussain as Chairman of the group's hugely successful IT firm TCS in place of Cyrus Mistry, who was ousted last month.

The company (TCS) has received a letter dated November 9, 2016 from Tata Sons Ltd nominating Ishaat Hussain as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company in place of Cyrus P Mistry with immediate effect. In view of this, Mistry has ceased to be the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company and Hussain is the new Chairman of the company, TCS said in a regulatory filing.

Also read : Tata Sons removes Cyrus Mistry as chairman, Ratan Tata takes over as interim chief

TCS said Hussain shall hold office as the Chairman of the company until a new Chairman is appointed in his place.

Tata Sons has issued a special notice under Section 169 read with Section 115 of the Companies Act, 2013 and a requisition for convening an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of the company under Section 100(2) of the Companies Act, 2013 to consider a resolution for the removal of Cyrus P Mistry as Director of the Company, it added.

Born on September 2, 1947, Hussain completed his schooling from The Doon School in 1963 to join St. Stephens College, Delhi, to do his graduation in Economics. A chartered accountant from England and Wales, Ishaat Hussain attended the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School. He joined the board of the Indian Tube Company (a Tata Steel associate company) in 1981. Thereafter, he moved to Tata Steel in 1983 after Indian Tube was merged with Tata Steel.

Besides being on the board of Tata Sons Limited, he is Chairman of Voltas Limited and Tata Sky Limited. He is also on the boards of several Tata Companies such as Tata Steel, Tata Industries, Tata Teleservices, Titan Industries Limited.

Also read : Tata enters, Mistry exits — all that you should know

In April 2005, Hussain was appointed a member of the Board of Trade, and in November 2006, he was appointed a Public Interest Director of Bombay Stock Exchange Limited. In January 2008, he was appointed a Trustee on the board of India Foundation for the Arts (IFA).

In a dramatic development on 24th October, Cyrus Mistry was removed from his position as chairman of Tata Sons and was replaced by Ratan Tata, from whom he had taken over the reins of the over $100 billion salt-to-software conglomerate four years ago.

Mistry was chosen as Tata’s successor in November 2011 and was appointed Deputy Chairman of Tata Sons, whose board he had joined in 2006. He was made chairman on the basis of his affiliation with Shapoorji Pallonji, the largest shareholder in Tata Sons.

Also read : Tata Group’s shares fall after Cyrus Mistry’s exit

There were no reasons given for the ouster of the man who was brought in with much fanfare, but it is believed that Tata Sons was unhappy with Mistry’s approach of shedding non-profit businesses, including the conglomerate’s steel business in Europe, and concentrating only on cash cows.