Natarajan Chandrasekaran has been reappointed executive chairman of Tata Sons for five years. Chandra, as he is known, was designated chairman in January 2017 and took charge on February 21, 2017, for a period of five years.

The board of the Tata Sons, the investment arm of the Tata Group, which met on Friday, commended Chandrasekaran’s performance as executive chairman and unanimously approved his reappointment, Tata Sons said in a statement.

“It has been a privilege to lead the Tata Group for the last five years and I am delighted at the opportunity to lead the Tata Group for another five years, in its next phase,” Chandrasekaran said.

Tata Sons’ chairman emeritus and group patriarch Ratan Tata was a special invitee to the board meeting and expressed his satisfaction at the progress and performance of the group under Chandrasekaran. Tata recommended Chandrasekaran’s term be renewed for a further five-year period.

Chandrasekaran’s tenure has been eventful and despite being hit by the pandemic most companies are doing well. Apart from buying Bhushan Steel and Power and winning the bid for state-run carrier Air India, developing a super app (TataNeu), revamping Tata Motors’ domestic operations and electrifying the world’s cheapest car the Nano, Chandrasekaran has overseen the divestment of Tata Steel’s cash-guzzling European operations. Under his watch, the group is making a big foray into the e-commerce arena with purchase of a 64% stake in BigBasket. For the financial year 2021, the revenue of all Tata companies – which collectively employ more than 8 lakh people, stood at $103 billion (Rs 7.7 lakh crore). As of December 31, 2021, the group had 29 publicly-listed companies with a combined market capitalisation of $314 billion (Rs 23.4 lakh crore).Popularly known as ‘Marathon Man’, Chandra was also among the 17 Padma Bhushan awardees this year.

Including Chandrasekaran, the Tata Sons’ board has six directors. Among them are Venu Srinivasan, chairman of Sundaram-Clayton, Ajay Piramal, chairman of Piramal Group, Ralf Speth,  chairman, TVS Motor, Bhaskar Bhat, former MD of Titan, and Harish Manwani, former global COO for Unilever.

Chandra joined group company Tata Consultancy Services in 1987 after completing his masters in computer applications from Regional Engineering College, Trichy. He later became the chief operating officer and executive director of TCS in 2009, and then its chief executive officer, before being appointed as chairman of the group.