Nirmalya Kumar to head Tata's group strategy

Kumar will hold responsibility for group level strategy, lend his expertise in bringing customer centricity across group companies to the fore

Tata Sons, the holding company for $100 billion turnover Tata Group said that Nirmalya Kumar, professor of marketing at London Business School will join its group executive council from 1 August. Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry created a second tier of top leadership by setting up the group executive council under the aegis of the board of Tata Sons in April. The council is expected to own and drive group level initiatives.

Kumar is the fourth member on the council which includes N S Rajan as chief human resources officer for the group, Mukund Govind Rajan the group’s brand custodian and chief ethics officer besides head of business development Madhu Kannan. All four have been hand picked by the chairman.

Kumar will hold responsibility for group level strategy and lend his expertise in bringing customer centricity across the group companies to the fore. Kumar received his B Com from the Calcutta University, his MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and his PhD in marketing from the Northwestern University, the USA.

He has taught at the Harvard Business School, IMD (Switzerland) and the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He is a member of the board of governors of the London Business School and has served on the boards of several top companies.

Kumar’s appointment follows appointment of ex-defence secretary Vijay Singh on the board of Tata Sons. Mistry has put on building a leadership team since he took the reins of Tata Group in December last year from Ratan Tata.