N Chandrasekaran is Chairman Tata Sons; Rajesh Gopinathan is CEO TCS

Natarajan Chandrasekaran has been appointed as the new group chairman of Tata Sons. His appointment, though not a surprise, brings all speculations regarding the chairmanship to a halt. Given Chandrasekaran's long and successful track record at TCS, it was believed that he would be the new chairman. He is the perfect choice and most suitable person within Tatas to lead the group. There is a valid reason for this. Most people close to him and those who know him believe that Chandrasekaran has amicable relationship with all group heads and, directors. He is known for his farsightedness and visionary planning, which Tata Sons is in dire need of.

The decision to appoint Chandra, a Tata group veteran, was taken at a meeting attended by a five member committee comprising Ratan Tata, TVS Group head Venu Srinivasan, Amit Chandra of Bain Capital, Ronen Sen and Lord Kumar Bhattacharya. It is believed that the decision to appoint Chandra was unanimous.

Chandra will have the biggest responsibility to drive Tata Group forward and take it through the crises posed by the deposed chairman Cyrus Mistry.

Earlier Chandra was CEO and managing director of Tata Consultancy Services. He took over as the CEO on October 6, 2009. Prior to this he was COO and Executive Director at TCS.

Since Chandra is now the chairman of Tata Group, TCS would be led by Rajesh Gopinathan as the CEO. Gopinathan till now was the CFO of TCS. He will have the responsibility to grow TCS business in his new role.