Cyrus Mistry, the former chairman of Tata Sons died in a car accident on Sunday after hitting a divider in the Palghar region, which is close to Mumbai. According to a police officer, Cyrus Mistry was travelling in a Mercedes from Ahmedabad to Mumbai and the accident took place around 3.15 p.m. Cyrus Mistry was headed from Ahmedabad to Mumbai.
Who was Cyrus Mistry?
While Cyrus Mistry’s last name may not have been Tata, he is as close to an outsider as one could get and in 2011, was named as Ratan Tata’s heir apparent to head one of India’s most illustrious commercial conglomerates. A five-person selection team, which included Mistry, reportedly spent 15 months looking for Ratan Tata’s replacement, according to a story from Reuters.
The largest individual stakeholder in a company that is primarily managed by trusts, Cyrus Mistry’s father, Pallonji Mistry, holds 18.5% of the shares that his grandfather initially purchased in the 1930s, according to the Reuters story. Ratan Tata’s half-brother Noel Tata was married to Cyrus Mistry. The Reuters story stated that Mistry’s father, a reclusive billionaire with an estimated wealth of $7.6 billion, helped his younger son get to the top of a company founded by Ratan Tata’s great-grandfather.
“I have been impressed with the quality and calibre of his participation, his astute observations and his humility,” Ratan Tata was quoted as saying in a statement back in 2011. The selection committee apparently gave Cyrus Mistry unanimous support, and he later rose to the position of deputy chairman of Tata and collaborated with Ratan Tata.
It is significant to remember that the Supreme Court earlier this year, in May, rejected Cyrus Mistry’s demand for a review of the Tata v. Mistry legal case. The Supreme Court rejected the SP group’s request for a review of the 2021 decision upholding Cyrus Mistry’s ouster as CEO of Tata Sons. However, a panel led by Chief Justice N V Ramana directed that some statements made in the March 2021 verdict against Cyrus Mistry be removed.