Tata Motors board may get new faces

TATA Motors is likely to elevate its chief finance officer and the head of its commercial vehicles business to its board, as India's largest automobile company looks to induct more executive directors.
    The officials being considered for such an elevation are the current CFO, C Ramakrishnan, and the chief of the commercial vehicle division, Ravi Pisharody, according to persons close to the group corporate centre.
    Ralph Speth, the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, the UK-based luxury carmaker, acquired by the Tatas, may also be considered, they said.
    Carl-Peter Forster and PM Telang, the managing director of India operations, are currently the two executive directors on the Tata Motors board. This plan is in line with the arrangement at other companies in the Tata fold where three-to-four functional heads who run strategic business units have positions on the board, the same people cited earlier said.
    A Tata Motors spokesperson said he did not want to comment on the possible board appointments. In a statement issued on Wednesday evening, Tata Motors said non-executive director R Gopalakrishnan was not stepping down from the board. Tata Motors may follow Tata Power's model
INSTEAD, the statement, explained, he had not offered himself for re-election to the Tata Motors board to enable the company to accommodate additional executive directors.
    The statement was in response to an ET story dated August 3 that said more executive directors would be inducted to the board. The move is also to retain the requisite ratio of independent directors, the release explained.
    At present, the Tata Motors board comprises four non-executive directors, seven independent directors and two executive directors.
    Tata Motors' passenger vehicle division currently does not have a president after the exit of Rajiv Dube, who has moved to the Aditya Birla Group.
    After Mr Dube's exit, his post was split into two, with S Krishnan heading the marketing division as senior vice president and Girish Wagh in charge of production.
    Earlier, Ravi Kant was the executive director of passenger cars before he was made managing director of Tata Motors He is currently the vice-chairman.
    Tata Motors could likely take a leaf out of what was implemented at Tata Power. Out of a board strength of 14 directors, the utility has four executive directors, including the managing director, and the heads of finance, operations and business and strategy.
    The maker of Nano cars in March had appointed Carl-Peter Forster, a General Motors veteran, as its CEO. His appointment will have to be ratified by shareholders at the forthcoming annual general meeting to be held on September 1.