The other Tata: Noel now at heart of succession battle

It was a point, Tata watchers say, when Noel, for long the ‘other Tata’ in the room, came into his own. It would have been hard for anyone to step into the legendary Ratan Tata’s shoes, possibly even harder to step out of them. That Noel — Ratan Tata’s half-brother, two decades his junior — could have that day effectively vetoed Chandrasekaran, the man Ratan Tata had appointed to the post instead of his half-brother, was remarkable for a business house that has long prided itself on reaching key decisions by consensus.

Noel Tata is the chairman of Tata Trusts, the family-run philanthropic arm that owns roughly two-thirds of Tata Sons.

On August 12, Chandrasekaran announced his decision to exit as Tata Sons chairman at the end of his term in February 2027, bringing to a close one of the most dramatic boardroom battles in recent times. With Noel likely to be on the five-member selection committee that will choose Chandrasekaran’s successor, he could have a decisive say in who comes next.

“In a company, the owner has every right to hire and fire key persons. Tata Trusts and group companies own majority stakes in Tata Sons. He (Noel) has every right to make recommendations for the post as Tata Trusts’ chairman, obviously with the backing of other trustees,” a senior Tata Group official told The Indian Express.

(From left) Naval Tata with sons Noel and Ratan. (Source: Horizons, Tata Trusts)

Ratan and Noel

From the 1990s until his death in 2024, Ratan Tata had been the public face of the Tata Group, the man at the heart of an empire spanning steel, automobiles, aviation, software, power, hotels, consumer businesses and much else. While he stepped down as chairman of Tata Sons in December 2012, he continued to lead Tata Trusts and have a decisive influence over the group’s governance, until his death in October 2024.

It was then that Noel emerged as the family’s main representative. While Ratan Tata’s ailing younger brother Jimmy Tata paid public homage to his departed sibling at Mumbai’s National Centre for the Performing Arts on October 10, it was Noel who received VIP guests throughout the mourning period.

After Ratan Tata’s death on October 9, 2024, Noel received VIP guests throughout the mourning period.

In his homage, Noel Tata said, “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth, Leo Tolstoy said. Measure Ratan Tata by these characteristics, and there can be no doubting what he brought to the world he lived in and what we have lost with his passing.”

For the longest time, however, the half-brothers had been distant, with their upbringing under different circumstances. After Ratan Tata’s father Naval Hormusji Tata separated from their mother Soonoo Commissariat, Ratan and Jimmy Tata were largely brought up by their grandmother Navajbai Tata.

Ratan Tata’s grandmother Navajbai Tata.

Naval went on to marry Swiss-born Simone Dunoyer, and by the time Noel was born to the couple in 1957, Ratan Tata was 20 years old.

In her 2021 book The Tatas, Freddie Mercury & Other Bawas, veteran journalist and The Indian Express’s Contributing Editor Coomi Kapoor writes that when Ratan Tata returned to India after graduating from Cornell University and staying back in the US for seven years, it was to a very different home. “…it is possible that Ratan may have felt ignored in the family home. His father had a new family, which included his half-brother — christened Noel, since he was born on Christmas Day. Noel was twenty years younger, and perhaps Ratan resented the newcomer’s presence. The relationship between Ratan and his stepmother is believed to be rather distant.”

Corporate structure of Tata Group

Noel, Kapoor writes, was then “the indulged baby boy, twenty years younger than his half-brother. Ratan was generally not present at Noel’s mother Simone’s Christmas and New Year bashes, even though he lived next door”.

The Noel family lives in Windermere building in downtown Mumbai’s Cuffe Parade, not very far from the sea-facing Bakhtawar, also called Cabins and Halekai bungalow, Ratan Tata’s home in Colaba.

Naval Tata.

Noel, now 69, is married to Aloo Mistry, the sister of former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry. In 2003, Noel, along with the entire Mistry family, acquired Irish citizenship after his father-in-law Pallonji Mistry’s marriage to Dublin-based Patsy Perin.

Noel’s mother Simone, who was the brain behind Lakme, the Tata group’s popular cosmetic brand, died in December 2025. Trent, the group’s retail arm that Noel turned around and is arguably his biggest achievement yet, was created in 1998 from the proceeds of sale of Lakme.

Noel Tata’s mother Simone Dunoyer.

“I only know Noel Tata as an academically well-qualified, accomplished, low-profile person. With his distinguished mother, he built a Rs 180,000-crore retail enterprise in India,” says R Gopalakrishnan, former Director of Tata Sons.

Noel took over as Managing Director of Trent in 1999 after a Bachelor’s from Sussex University (UK) and an International Executive Programme at France’s INSEAD. Under Noel, Trent expanded dramatically across formats, eventually turning into the company behind household names such as Westside and Zudio. From one store in 1998, Westside grew to more than 1,200 stores across formats during his tenure.

In June this year, Noel announced at the Trent Annual General Meeting that he was stepping down as chairman in line with the Tata Group’s governance guidelines, under which non-executive directors retire at 70.

Despite Noel’s successful stint at Trent, Ratan Tata was, by all accounts, unwilling to promote his half brother. As late as 2019, Noel was not even a trustee on any of the major Tata trusts.

Besides, he was overlooked for the post of chairman of Tata Sons at least twice. In 2012, when Ratan Tata decided to retire as Chairman of Tata Sons, most eyes turned towards the low-profile, reticent Noel. But the mantle ultimately went to Cyrus Mistry. Then, in 2016, when Mistry was dramatically ousted from the chairmanship, speculation again swirled around Noel. But then, too, he was overlooked, this time in favour of Chandrasekaran, then the MD and CEO of Tata Consultancy Services, the group’s flagship technology company.

The Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai opened its doors on 16 December 1903. (Express photos by Akash Patil)

In his book, Ratan Tata: A Life, author and former bureaucrat Thomas Mathew quotes Ratan Tata as saying, “Perhaps, if Noel had the experience of handling difficult assignments, he could have established his credentials more forcefully.”

Apart from that rare remark, both Ratan and Noel Tata spoke very little about each other in public. But people close to Noel say that Ratan was fond of his half-brother’s children Leah, Maya and Neville. Neville is already a trustee in Tata Trusts and is involved in the retail business. Leah works with Indian Hotels and Maya with Tata Digital and Trent.

In February 2019, Noel was finally inducted as a trustee of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust. He was finally inducted as a trustee of the Sir Dorab Tata Trust in February 2022. (Express photo by A.Srinivas)

In February 2019, Noel was finally inducted as a trustee of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, one of the two core, allied trusts that anchor the Tata Trusts network. Kapoor writes, “It was only when Ratan’s long-time financial advisor, Noshir Soonawala, stepped down, at the age of eighty-four, and reportedly called on Ratan to induct Noel that Ratan’s half-brother was appointed in his place.”

The bond between the two half-siblings, Coomi Kapoor writes, became stronger after 2016, around which time, Noel says in an interview, they met regularly. In February 2022, he was finally inducted as a trustee of the Sir Dorab Tata Trust, too.

Sir Dorab Tata

Noel comes into his own

People who know him say Noel, usually seen in button-down shirts in blue or white, is self-effacing and reserved. “When I met him at a simple Tata guest house in Mumbai when I was involved in writing the book, I realised he has amazing vision about various things,” Mathew says.

Others, however, see a different side. “As a business leader, he’s untested so far,” says a top source who is part of the Tata ecosystem. “He was not part of the core business of manufacturing in the group. He was the chairman of the loss-making Tata International.”

Noel Tata and his family reside in the Windermere building located in Cuffe Parade. (Special Arrangement)

A top source in the Tata Group says, “While Noel lacks the stature and standing of Ratan Tata in the Indian industrial landscape, he has proved his mettle by successfully running companies like Trent and Tata Investment Corporation… and he was on the boards of leading Tata companies like Tata Steel. His role will be that of a guide, guard and policy-maker for the group. He can always step in when Tata Sons or group companies make wrong decisions.”

Yet, they all point to the February 2026 meeting, when he challenged Chandrasekaran on the latter’s reappointment and the direction of the group, as evidence of a man increasingly willing to make his views heard and establish his authority — much as Ratan Tata had done decades earlier.

Taj Hotels is the luxury hotel chain owned by the Tata Group. (Express photos by Akash Patil)

In 1991, when Ratan Tata took over as chairman of Tata Sons from Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy (JRD) Tata, who stepped down after leading the conglomerate for over 50 years, he eased out some of the most prominent faces — from Russi Mody of Tata Steel to Darbari Seth of Tata Chemicals and Ajit Kerkar of Indian Hotels — and replaced them with his men.

In Noel’s case, it started with Mehli Mistry, his wife’s cousin and Ratan Tata’s close friend. Last year, Mehli was not renominated to the Tata Trusts. Another Tata Trusts member, former Citi India CEO Pramit Jhaveri, saw the writing on the wall and didn’t opt for reappointment. Chandrasekaran, too, had earlier postponed the decision on his extension.

The Tata Group officially took over Air India on January 27, 2022. (Express Photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)

There had, for some time, been a sense within the group that Noel and Chandrasekaran had differing views on the direction of Tata Sons. Some of Noel’s concerns were about the way the group was evolving under Chandrasekaran — including how far it should move into newer businesses, how those businesses were being managed and how the Tata Group’s long-established culture should be preserved. The question of whether Tata Sons should remain private had become another point of difference, as had the losses being incurred by some of its newer and unlisted businesses.

The way ahead for Noel, Tatas

When the five-member selection committee, which may include Noel Tata, meets to decide on the new chairman of Tata Sons, there will be questions to confront. Will the new chairman be a Tata insider, someone promoted from the many Tata companies? A family member? A member of the Parsi community? Or will the Tatas look beyond as they scout for talent?

Sir Ratan Tata

Those close to Noel say that his choice will reflect some of his concerns related to the Group.

While the market capitalisation of the Tata Group’s listed companies has more than tripled over the past nine years, rising to around Rs 27 lakh crore, it has been accompanied by mounting losses at some of the group’s major unlisted businesses, and these companies need to be returned to profitability.

The losses of eight unlisted Tata companies stood at Rs 33,538 crore in FY26. Air India accounted for the largest share of these losses, with its annual loss doubling to Rs 22,238 crore. Tata Digital, another key unlisted business that houses the group’s digital ambitions, reported a loss of Rs 4,974 crore during the year.

Air India accounted for the largest share of these losses, with its annual loss doubling to Rs 22,238 crore. Express Photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)

As the group looks for a new direction and investment plan in the wake of changing technological advancements, Noel’s every move, especially the selection of the new chairman of Tata Sons, will be keenly watched and scrutinised.