Ratan N Tata

Ratan Tata was the Chairman of Tata Sons for 21 years, until his retirement in December 2012. He also chaired a number of Tata’s major companies, including Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services and Tata Power. Tata joined the family business in 1962. Mr Tata is a director of Alcoa, and serves on the international advisory boards of, amongst others, Mitsubishi Corporation, JP Morgan Chase, Rolls-Royce and Temasek Holdings. He is a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s Council on Trade & Industry, and president of the Court of the Indian Institute of Science. He also serves on the board of trustees of Cornell University and the University of Southern California. In 2008 the Government of India honoured Mr Tata with its second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan. Naval Tata married a cousin, Sooni Tata, but they separated when Ratan and his younger brother, Jimmy, were still children. Both boys were raised and adopted by their wealthy paternal grandmother. He was sent to the United States for high school at the Riverdale Country School in New York City. He graduated from Cornell University with an architecture degree and later took management courses at Harvard Business School. His survivors include his stepmother, Simone; his younger brother, Jimmy; a half brother, Noel; and two half sisters, Shireen and Deanna Jejeebhoy.