Remembering Cyrus Mistry: 10 things to know about the former Tata Sons chairman

Sep 5, 2022

By: BI India Bureau

Credit: BCCL

Death of Cyrus Mistry

The 54-year-old businessman died on Sunday, September 4 in a road accident after his car hit a divider in Maharashtra's Palghar district near Mumbai.

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Early life

Cyrus Mistry, the former chairman of Tata Sons, was born in Mumbai on 4 July 1968. He was an Irish by nationality as his mother was Irish.

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Family

He was the second son of billionaire and construction magnate Pallonji Mistry and his elder brother is Shapoor Mistry. Both his parents held Irish citizenship.

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About his father

Pallonji Mistry passed away in June this year. The Pallonjis have had business interests in India for over 100 years. In the 1930s, Mistry’s grandfather acquired a stake in Tata Sons. He also got a Masters degree in management from the University of London.

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Education

Mistry went to Cathedral & John Connon School in Mumbai. He completed his civil engineering course from the Imperial College in London.

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His stake in Tata Sons

The Mistry family has 18.37 percent in Tata Sons, which is the largest shareholding by a single entity.

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Director of Tata Sons

Cyrus Mistry joined the Tata Sons board in 2006 after his father retired from it. He served as director on Tata Elxsi between 1990 and 2009 and was also a director on Tata Power board till 2006.

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CEO of Tata Sons

In 2013, Mistry was appointed chairman of Tata Sons and was also appointed chairman of several other Tata group companies.

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Family background

Cyrus Mistry was married to Rohiqa Chagla, the daughter of lawyer Iqbal Chagla and granddaughter of jurist MC Chagla. It was his father-in-law that strategized his entire legal battle against Tata Sons. Mistry has two sons – Firoz and Zahan Mistry.

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Cyrus as a person

Mistry was known to be a soft spoken and gentleman who believed he had to fight for his honour after he was evicted in an ugly boardroom battle.

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