Mehli Mistry exits Tatas’ inner circle

MUMBAI: For someone at the heart of one of India’s most storied corporate families, Mehli Mistry has long remained an enigma: a man who moves within the most rarefied Parsi circles yet stays almost invisible to the public eye. Photographs of him are scarce; party appearances rarer still. He doesn’t drink, avoids the social circuit, and spends most of the year in London, where he holds British citizenship. But inside the closely guarded world of the Tata Trusts, Mehli Mistry was anything but silent.The non-renewal of his trusteeship for life from the boards of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust ends a three-year stint that began with Ratan Tata’s personal endorsement. A long-time confidant of the late industrialist, Mehli was seen as one of his closest allies and a protector of the Tata legacy. His ouster marks another turning point for the Trusts that collectively hold 66% of Tata Sons, the holding company of the $180-billion Tata Group.

The 65-year-old’s association with Ratan Tata goes back several decades. Both lived in the same Colaba apartment complex, Bakhtawar, and their shared Parsi roots helped forge a friendship that would endure corporate upheavals and family feuds. Those who have seen them together describe Mehli as quietly devoted to Tata, someone who preferred to operate behind the scenes but was unafraid to voice his views at Trusts’ meetings.Appointed trustee in late 2022, Mehli quickly became known for his insistence on governance standards and for reminding colleagues of the founding ethos of the Tata Trusts. “I’ll do whatever he wants me to do. I have to secure his interests at all times,” he had said shortly after joining, referring to Ratan Tata as his mentor.That loyalty had long been visible. When the Tata-Mistry clash erupted in 2016 with the ouster of Cyrus Mistry from chairmanship of Tata Sons, Mehli chose to back Ratan Tata over his own cousin. It was a decision that widened an already strained family relationship. His mother and Cyrus’s mother are sisters, and the families are also connected through their fathers, both descendants of the founders of the Pallonji construction empire.Mehli heads the smaller M Pallonji Group, which operates in shipping, dredging, auto dealerships and counts Tata companies among its associates. The two business houses have been linked since the 1950s, with Mehli’s firm working with Tata Power and Tata Motors over the years.Despite those ties, Mehli has maintained a modest public profile; though he grew close enough to Ratan Tata to execute his will and inherit his Alibaug bungalow and heirloom guns, he has managed to stay out of the spotlight. His appointment to the Trusts in 2022, several months before Tata’s death, was widely seen as an effort to ensure continuity of vision.That continuity, however, appears to have frayed since Tata’s passing. The non-renewal of his reappointment was the result of a majority vote by trustees including Noel Tata, Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh, who chose to break away from the convention of unanimity that the Trusts have long observed. Coincidentally, it comes in Oct, the same month that Cyrus Mistry was ousted from Tata Sons nine years ago.For a family already divided by one corporate rupture, the latest development adds another twist. Mehli’s equation with Noel Tata, Ratan Tata’s half-brother, too was once cordial. He had even proposed Noel’s name for chairman of the two main trusts after Ratan Tata’s death. Now, Noel is among those who have voted against his trusteeship.Within the Tata ecosystem, Mehli was always viewed as more custodian than operator, deeply conscious of the group’s founding principles even though he preferred not to be in the limelight. His associates say his interventions were often pointed, especially on governance and the need to uphold the trusts’ independence.Married and father to Laila Mistry, who is engaged to a member of the Piramal family, Mehli continues to spend most of his time overseas. Whether he will challenge his ouster remains to be seen. For now, it closes another chapter in the evolving story of the Tata Trusts, one that has revealed the churn within the group it controls. And for Mehli Mistry, the man who once stood guard over Ratan Tata’s legacy, it marks a quiet but symbolic exit from the inner circle he helped defend.