Ex-defence secretary Vijay Singh joins Tata Sons board

Singh, 65, obtained his Masters degree in History from Delhi University and joined IAS in 1970 under Madhya Pradesh cadre

Former defence secretary Vijay Singh has joined the Tata Sons board, making him the first appointment on the board of Tata group’s holding company under the chairmanship of Cyrus Mistry.

Singh, 65, obtained his masters degree in history from the  University of Delhi and joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1970 under the Madhya Pradesh cadre.

The board is now set to see a transformation with many new faces ready to join the holding company. While Ratan Tata retired from the board last December, Arun Gandhi, who was looking after the mergers and acquisitions of the group, also retired early this year. R K Krishna Kumar, another board member who will turn 75 by mid-July, is retiring in two weeks.

Apart from Mistry, the board now consists of F K Kavarana, R Gopalakrishnan, Ishaat Hussain and Singh.

Singh worked in various capacities in Madhya Pradesh from 1971 and held the post of district magistrate of Gwalior and Bhopal in his initial postings.

He was also the chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh from October 2004 to January 2006 and later became a  member of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). He resigned from UPSC in April this year without giving any reasons.

Since his takeover, Mistry, 44, the reclusive chairman of Rs 5.5 lakh-crore Tata Group, set up a group executive council  (GEC) under the aegis of Tata Sons board to own and drive group-level strategies in May.

The GEC comprises N S Rajan, 51, who has been appointed as the chief human resource officer for the group. Rajan is currently a partner and global leader, people and organisation, at Ernst and Young and will join Tata Sons on May 9.  Rajan replaces Satish Pradhan, 58, who left Tata Sons this month from his role as chief of group human resources.

Other members include Mukund Govind Rajan, 44, and Madhu Kannan, 40. Mukund Govind Rajan, a veteran of Tata Group, was appointed as the group’s brand custodian in February. Kannan, a former chief executive officer of BSE, was appointed in 2012 to head business development for the group.

With GEC coming in in existence, the earlier apex executive bodies--group executive office and group corporate centre --set up by former chairman of the group Ratan Tata, respectively, in 1999 and 2001, ceased to exist.