Tata Trusts inducts chair Noel Tata's son Neville on the principal trust

Tata Trusts on Tuesday inducted Neville Noel Tata, son of Noel Tata, and Bhaskar Bhat on the board of Sir Dorabji Tata Trusts. This is the largest Tata philanthropic entity, owning 27.98% of Tata Sons, the holding company of the $300 billion Tata Group.

At 32, Neville is now arguably the youngest trustee of the philanthropic entity. His induction comes 11 months after his father, Noel, became chairman of Tata Trusts. That was less than 48 hours after the death of Ratan Tata on 9 October last year.

“The Board of Trustees of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) held a meeting today and unanimously approved the induction of Mr Bhaskar Bhat and Mr Neville Tata as Trustees with effect from 12th November 2025 for a period of 3 years,” said a statement from Tata Trusts.

“The Board also decided to appoint Mr Venu Srinivasan as Trustee for a period of 3 years with effect from 12th November 2025, in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, and to designate him as Vice Chairman of SDTT,” Tata Trusts said.

Last year, Neville Tata was appointed as the business head of Trent Ltd’s grocery business, Star.

Incidentally, Noel Tata, in addition to being the chair of the Tata Trusts and a member of the Tata Sons board, is also the chairman of Trent Ltd, Tata International, and Tata Investment Corp.

Recent developments at Tata Trusts highlight Noel cementing control over the philanthropic entities. These entities own 65.9% of Tata Sons, the holding company of the $300 billion Tata empire. Noel first won approval to become a permanent trustee in January. In October, Noel and the vice chairmen, Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh, opposed the continuation of Mehli Mistry, Ratan Tata’s confidante, on the Tata Trusts board.

With the induction of Bhat and Neville, the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) has seven members, while the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) has six.

Noel Tata, TVS Motor Corp. chairman Emeritus Venu Srinivasan, and retired defence secretary Vijay Singh are members of both trusts. Pramit Jhaveri, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Citibank India, and Mumbai-based lawyer Darius Khambata serve as SDTT members.

Khambata and Jehangir H.C. Jehangir, a philanthropist based in Pune, are members of SRTT. Ratan Tata’s brother, Jimmy N. Tata, is the sixth trustee at SRTT. Due to his advancing age, he no longer participates in the proceedings of the philanthropic entities.

Bhat stepped down from the board of Tata Sons last year, having reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. He was earlier CEO of Titan Co. Ltd. During Bhat’s 19-year tenure, from April 1, 2002, to September 30, 2019, Titan’s revenue grew from ₹700 crore to ₹15,000 crore.

Bhat is also one of the few Tata Group executives to have managed to join the board of Tata Trusts. He was one of the few senior Tata leaders who publicly came out in support of Ratan Tata after Cyrus Mistry was sacked as Tata Sons chairman in October 2016.

During the last years of Ratan Tata's tenure, Neville used to spend time with the business doyen, which a few family members referred to as mentorship.