Tata Sons, the holding firm of the over $100 billion Tata Group, has appointed Nirmalya Kumar, professor of marketing at the London Business School, as a member of the Group Executive Council (GEC). Kumar will report to the chairman of the company Cyrus P Mistry from August 1.
Kumar will take the responsibility for strategy at the group level. He will also lend his expertise in bringing customer centricity to the fore across group companies, as per a company statement issued on Wednesday.
This is the fourth appointment in the GEC by the new chief of Tata Group. The team which reports to Mistry leads various strategic functions besides serving as nominees of Tata Sons on the boards of Tata companies. The group had previously brought in NS Rajan, who will lead the strategic function of human resources; Mukund G Rajan, who will oversee brand, communication, ethics and corporate sustainability and Madhu Kannan, who will head business development and public affairs to the GEC.
The council is to provide strategic and operational support to the group chairman and it will take the responsibility for all the roles earlier performed by both the group corporate centre (GCC) and the group executive office (GEO).
Kumar is currently a professor of marketing and director of Aditya Birla India Centre at London Business School. He previously served on the faculty of Harvard Business School, IMD-International Institute for Management Development (Switzerland) and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Kumar has also served on the boards of several top companies.
He received his B Com degree from Calcutta University, an MBA from the University of Illinois and a PhD in marketing from Northwestern University.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
