Construction Tycoon Pallonji's son, Cyrus P. Mistry to succeed Ratan Tata as Chairman of Tata Group

Cyrus P. Mistry was on 23 November 2011 chosen to succeed Tata group chairman Ratan Tata as the group’s new chairman in 2012. He has currently been appointed as the Deputy Chairman and will take over when Ratan N Tata formally retires in December 2012 on reaching the age of 75. Ratan Tata has been the chairman of the group with interests in diverse sectors such as telecom, automobile, engineering and hotels, since 1991.Tata Group is worth $70 billion dollars.

Youngest son of construction tycoon Pallonji Mistry, Cyrus P. Mistry is currently the Managing Director of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group. He is also on the board of Tata Sons, the holding company which controls the Tata Group. Pallonji Mistry owns a significant stake in the Tata Group.
 
Board of Directors decided that Mistry will first serve as the Deputy Chairman of Tata Sons. Mistry will then work as an understudy of Ratan Tata, before eventually taking over from him when the latter retires. Mistry will then work as an understudy of Ratan Tata, before eventually taking over from him when the latter retires.

A five-man selection team - which included the 43-year-old Mistry himself - spent 15 months searching for a successor to 73-year-old Tata. The naming of Mistry ended months of intense media speculation.

For the second time a non-Tata is to take over as the group's chairman. Before Cyrus Sir Nowroji Saklatwala had been the group's chairman between 1932 and 1938.



Cyrus P. Mistry

Mistry is a graduate of civil engineering from Imperial College of London, and has a Master of Science in Management from the London Business School. Cyrus Mistry joined the Shapoorji Pallonji group as a director in 1991. he announced post his appointment that he would legally dissociate himself from the SP group.

Mistry who will head a group with revenues in excess of $83 billion, is brother-in-law to Noel Tata, Ratan Tata's half-brother. Noel Tata was considered by many observers to have been the front-runner in the race for the chairmanship.

Mistry's grandfather first bought shares in Tata Sons in the 1930s, a stake that currently stands at 18.5 percent in the hands of Mistry's father, Pallonji Mistry, the largest single shareholder in a firm mostly controlled by trusts.
 
Mistry's father, Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry known as Phantom of Bombay House is a reclusive billionaire with an estimated wealth of $7.6 billion according to Forbes. Accordin to Forbes, he is the world's wealthiest Parsi and the richest Irishman. He is an Irish citizen by marriage. Since Indian constitution does not allow for dual citizenship, it can be concluded that Pallonji's nationality is only Irish and not Indian. Born to an Irish mother and a father who attained Irish nationality on marriage, Cyrus P. Mistry's nationality is also Irish.

When Pallonji retired from the board of Tata Sons in 2006, his then 38-year-old son, Cyrus P. Mistry stepped into his shoes.