Former Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) Chief Operating Officer (COO) COO, Harish Manwani is one of the candidates for the post of Tata Sons’ Chairman.
According to reports, ‘the former COO of the Dove-to-Marmite consumer goods giant, is being lined up as a possible successor to Cyrus Mistry, who was sacked last month’.
British channel Sky News reported that Manwani’s emergence of a potential new chairman so soon after Mistry's exit - which sent shockwaves through the Indian corporate establishment - could ease concerns about the management of the group, which also has major interests in power, chemicals and consumer goods.
The 62-year-old currently serves as the non-executive chairman of Hindustan Unilever and a director of Whirlpool Corporation.
In a sudden and dramatic turn of events last month, Mistry was unceremoniously removed as the Chairman of Tata Sons and replaced by his predecessor Ratan Tata in the interim, triggering a confrontation between the single-largest shareholder and the Tatas.
Returning to Tata Sons after the abrupt removal of Mistry, Tata has moved quickly to consolidate his grip over the salt-to-software group by seeking to remove the ousted Chairman from boards of group firms.
TCS has called an EGM on December 13, Indian Hotels has convened it on December 20 and Tata Chemicals on December 23 to seek Mistry's ouster.
Even after being removed as chairman of Tata Sons -- the holding company of the Tata Group -- Mistry continues to head the group's several listed firms, including Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Steel and Tata Chemicals.
