Cyrus Mistry's exit from Tata Sons: In 24 hours, from chairman to non-executive director

The outgoing chairman of Tata Group, Cyrus Mistry, continues on the board of Tata Sons, but he has been redesignated as ‘non-executive director’. A non-executive director is a member of a company’s board of directors who is not part of the executive team. A non-executive director typically does not engage in the day-to-day management of the organisation, but is involved in policy making and planning exercises.

In a filing to the Registrar of Companies on Monday, Tata Sons communicated the change in designation. Interestingly, the filing declared his category as ‘professional’. This categorisation was despite two Mistry family-owned entities namely, Sterling Investment Corp and Cyrus Investments, holding 18.4 per cent stake in Tata Sons. 

Till Monday, Mistry was designated as the executive chairman. For the year ended March 2016, he drew a total remuneration of Rs 17.6 crore from Tata Sons. This included a gross salary of Rs 5.6 crore and a commission of Rs 11 crore. 

The non-executive directors of Tata Sons drew a remuneration between Rs 1.3 crore and Rs 1.5 crore.