Saurabh Agrawal as new CFO of Tata Sons

In his first major appointment since taking charge as Tata Sons Chairman, N Chandrasekaran has roped in Saurabh Agrawal as the group Chief Financial Officer.

Agrawal is an investment banker and was Head of Strategy at the Aditya Birla Group. He will join the Tata group in July. Before joining the Aditya Birla Group, he led the Corporate Finance Unit at Standard Chartered Bank in India and South Asia, and the Investment Banking division at DSP Merrill Lynch.

He will be the first CFO of the salt to steel conglomerate. Until now Tata Sons’ finances were managed by Ratan Tata’s close associate Ishaat Hussain, who was Director of Finance till 2012. Since then, Hussain has been overseeing financial affairs but as a non-executive director. Hussain turns 70 this year and may step down from the Tata board.

“He brings deep capital markets knowledge and valuable cross-industry experience to this critical leadership role,” said Chandrasekaran.

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