N Chandrasekaran is Air India chief, HUL’s Mehta on board

MUMBAI / NEW DELHI: Tata Sons chief N Chandrasekaran has taken charge as the chairman of Air India, the carrier it acquired from the government in January.
Hindustan Unilever (HUL) chairman & MD Sanjiv Mehta and former General Insurance Corporation chairperson Alice Vaidyan have been inducted into the Air India (AI) board as independent directors.
With these appointments, the AI board has expanded to seven members from four. Current AI employees Vinod Hejmadi (director-finance), Captain R S Sandhu (director-operations), Meenakshi Mallik (director-commercial) and Amrita Sharan (director-personnel) are the other four board members.
Rules require an airline company receive the government’s nod before new board members take charge. The three appointments indicate that they have got security clearance. All the three assumed responsibilities last week, said a person familiar with the development.