P B Balaji, a CFO who plays with a straight bat, now captains JLR

Balaji's rise to the top spot at JLR as its CEO comes at a time when the company is in a transition phase, lining up plans for more electric vehicles

His career moves across the world — from countries like Switzerland and Singapore to cities like London — meant his daughter had to switch nine schools in just 15 years. This is just one glimpse into the lesser-known personal side of the otherwise career-oriented Pathamadai Balachandran Balaji, who was elevated as the first Indian chief executive officer of Tata Motors-owned luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Monday.

 

However, his life is about more than just boardroom talks and business growth.

 

Balaji, in his mid-50s, is a die-hard cricket enthusiast and an admirer of Virat Kohli, yet chooses not to watch India’s matches due to personal beliefs. While being a true global Indian, the Chennai boy comes alive when asked about his loyalty in cricket. “The team I support is Chennai Super Kings (CSK). I hail from Chennai, so it will always be CSK,” he once said.

 

According to industry insiders, it is this diverse profile — ranging from being an engineer who ventured into finance, led accounting functions, and even took charge of supply chain operations — that helps him stand out in the corporate world. Balaji is set to take charge of the global automotive major after Adrian Mardell, who will retire on December 31 this year.

 

However, Balaji is no stranger to Tata group. He was handpicked by Chairman N Chandrasekaran almost eight years ago, in November 2017, as the group chief financial officer (CFO) at Tata Motors, replacing the retiring CFO, C R Ramakrishnan. When he got Chandrasekaran’s call, Balaji was the CFO of Hindustan Unilever (HUL). Evoking the straight drive of his cricketing idol, Kohli, Balaji mentioned the upcoming Tata group plans in his resignation letter with a straight bat — as a move to pursue an “exciting external opportunity”.

 

Since then, he has been instrumental in several strategic decisions at Tata Motors, such as cost reductions, optimised operations, and choosing profitable growth over market share. His charisma is not only limited to Tata Motors, as he also became part of the boards of Air India, Titan Company, and Tata Consumer Products, where the company used his expertise as a planner to its full extent.

 

It is his role as CFO that helped Tata Motors achieve its highest-ever revenue of ~4.38 trillion in 2024-25, turning net debt-free. Moreover, he is also overseeing the planned demerger of Tata Motors into two independently listed entities — one focusing on commercial vehicles and the other on passenger vehicles and JLR — by the end of 2025.

 

A similar success story is what the company wants him to replicate at JLR, which reported a decline in sales volumes for the first quarter of 2025-26, with both wholesale (down 11 per cent) and retail figures (down 15 per cent) falling amid a planned wind-down of older Jaguar models and the impact of new US tariffs.

 

Balaji’s rise to the top spot at JLR comes at a time when the company is in a transition phase, lining up plans for more electric vehicles. Similarly, the current tariff crisis is expected to hit the company, as the US market contributes around 23 per cent of its revenue and 25 per cent of global sales. Not having US production is a major challenge amid an uncertain policy scenario.

 

From net practice to the big league

 

Balaji did his schooling at the prestigious Ida Scudder School at Kalinjur near Vellore in Tamil Nadu. He holds two process degrees — being a mechanical engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Class of 1991, followed by a postgraduate diploma in finance and operations from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.

 

Immediately after that, he joined as a management trainee at HUL in 1993, where he worked in several roles, including finance and supply chain. This includes vice-president (treasury) based out of Singapore in 2007, vice-president (finance) in 2009, group chief accountant based in London in 2011, vice-president (finance) and Americas supply chain in 2013 from Switzerland, before coming back to Mumbai as HUL CFO in 2014.

 

It is this global experience that may come in handy at the helm of the Coventry-based company for Balaji, who is known as a team man and a planner. Addressing a career planning workshop of chartered accountants (CAs) in 2015, he said, “A Sachin Tendulkar will never be the world’s best wicketkeeper... See what you are good at.”

 

It is this clarity about the future of the company that helped him succeed as one of the most successful CFOs in recent times. In Balaji’s own words to the CAs, “What matters is what it is that you profess, what it is that you do, and how you deliver it.”

 

Now, it is time for Balaji to script the JLR story ahead.