Tata Trust nominee Vijay Singh steps down from Tata Sons board

Having reached the official retirement age, Mr. Vijay Singh a Tata Trust nominee has stepped down. Singh had chaired the Tata Sons board meeting that ousted former chairman Cyrus Mistry in October 2016. Tata Trusts is short listing a candidate to replace him the officials said .

Vijay Singh attended his last Tata Sons board meeting in UK in June 2018 where group chairman had presented his first five year growth strategy. “I am very happy that the group is now in the safe hands of Chairman N Chandrasekaran in terms of future growth. He is one of the ablest chairman and will steer the group to great heights” Singh told.

Vijay Singh and Nitin Nohria were the first external Trust nominees of Tata Sons board. Singh Singh, a 1970-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre quit as member of the Union Public Service Commission in 2013. He served as defence secretary between 2007 and 2009, and as secretary, ministry of road, transport and highways, and chief secretary to the government of Madhya Pradesh.

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Tata Sons had a few months earlier inducted former bureaucrat Singh on its board. At present, the board has six directors – Cyrus P Mistry, Ishaat Hussain, R Gopalakrishnan, F K Kavarana, Vijay Singh and Nitin Nohria. The board can have up to 15 directors, the spokesperson added.

In the past, the trusts had nominated Ratan Tata, N A Soonawala and R K Krishna Kumar, all of whom have retired from the board. When asked about the roles played by the nominees of the Tata trusts, the spokesperson said.

“In keeping with the shareholding of the trusts in Tata Sons, the nominees play their rightful role in the governance of the company and discharge their fiduciary responsibilities as directors.” The Tata trusts, instituted by members of the Tata family, control 66 per cent of the shares of Tata Sons.

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