Termination at Tatas

Cyrus Mistry (pictured) was summarily ousted as chairman of the board of Tata Sons at a meeting held on October 24, 2016, according to an announcement on the website of the Tata Group on the same date. Although no reasons were cited for the change, newspapers and television channels speculated that it could be due to the recent lacklustre performance of the Group. Ratan Tata was named as interim chairman. The note detailed that the board had constituted a selection committee comprising Ratan Tata, Venu Srinivasan, Amit Chandra, Ronen Sen (board members) and Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya (chairman of Warwick Manufacturing Group, UK), to select a new chairman within four months.
Mistry, only the second group chairman not to have a Tata surname, was appointed to that position after a year-long search, in December 2012. His was the shortest tenure among the six individuals who have held the position since 1868. In the 1930s his grandfather Shapoorji first acquired a stake in Tata Sons, which now stands at 18.5% and is held by Cyrus’ father Pallonji. This comprises the largest block of shares held by a single individual in Tata Sons. Tata Trusts, including Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust, own two-thirds of Tata Sons.
Mistry has called the decision of the board "unparalleled in the annals of corporate history,” according to a report in The Economic Times dated October 26, 2016.