Natrajan Chandrasekaran will be the chairman of Air India, according to the Tata Group. His appointment was confirmed by the board of directors on Monday. The Tata company had earlier named Turkey's Ilker Ayci as Air India's CEO, but his appointment was met with strong criticism in India.
As a result, Turkey's Ilker Ayci turned down the position of CEO of Tata's Air India. Chandrasekaran is the Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding firm that owns and operates over 100 Tata operational enterprises.
In October 2016, he joined the Tata Sons Board of Directors and was named Chairman in January 2017.
He also serves on the boards of several of the group's operating companies, including Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), where he served as CEO from 2009 to 2017.
His nomination as Chairman came after a 30-year career in business with TCS, which he started straight out of university.
He worked his way up through TCS's ranks to become CEO and Managing Director of the world's largest IT solutions and consulting organization.
Chandrasekaran became the Tata Group's first non-Parsi and professional executive. He recently addressed Air India's staff, saying that the Tata group now wants to expand the airline's network, upgrade its fleet, improve customer service, and make it the world's most technologically advanced airline.
In the following months, the group's key priority will be improving Air India's basic service standards, on-time performance, passenger complaint issues, and customer call centres. The next CEO's priority will be to upgrade the airline's fleet in order to develop both the domestic and international network, according to officials.
