NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: A new Air India (AI) board led by Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran will be formed soon even as several group executives from TCS, AirAsia India and Tata Steel are expected to move to the ailing carrier to revive operations. Chandrasekaran, who is awaiting security clearance from the Centre to lead the Air India board, will bring in an expat CEO to pilot the carrier. This will be his second expat CEO hire after German citizen Puneet Chhatwal for Taj hotels.
Going by the Tata Group’s current board format, Ratan Tata is expected to be chairman emeritus of AI, which will mark his return to the carrier after years (Ratan Tata, who holds a pilot licence for fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, was the AI chairman in the mid-1980s).
Since AI is a public company, rules require it to have a minimum of three and a maximum of 15 directors on its board, said shareholder advisory firm InGovern’s founder Shriram Subramanian. “Ideally, it should have a minimum of six directors for enough diversity.” AI until now had seven members on its board.
