Natarajan Chandrasekaran named Tata Sons chairman

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Tata Sons has named Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the current CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy, as its new chairman.

The 53-year-old TCS chief executive has been with the group since 2009 and was appointed as a director on the board of Tata Sons after Cyrus Mistry was removed as chairman of the group late last year.

Tata Sons, the holding company of the listed Tata group companies in a business empire ranging from Jaguar Land Rover and steel mills to aviation and salt pans, ousted its chairman Cyrus Mistry in October, sparking a bitter public spat.

The news came as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd , India's biggest software services company, reported its results on Thursday. Chandrasekaran had been widely rumoured to be one of the leading contenders to replace Mistry. "Let's not speculate," Chandrasekaran had earlier said, when asked at a news conference after the TCS results if he was getting the Tata Sons chairman's role.

Ratan Tata, patriarch of one of India's most influential families, had taken over as interim chairman of Tata Sons after the board ousted Mistry.

In October, Tata Sons' board had set up a five-member selection committee that included Ratan Tata to choose a new chairman within the next four months.
(Writing by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Alex Richardson)