Many who knew Cyrus Mistry — the former Tata Sons chairman who died in a car accident in Maharashtra’s Palghar district on Sunday — often referred to him as the most low-profile man with the most high-profile job.
The mild-mannered Mistry, who once helmed India’s biggest business group, was also the scion of one of the country’s most illustrious business families that fiercely guarded its privacy. He was 54.
Mistry’s family friend Jahangir Pandole was also killed when their luxury car hit a divider on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, around 100 km from downtown Mumbai.
Mistry’s death came less than three months after the family lost its patriarch and Cyrus Mistry’s father, Pallonji Mistry.
The Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which was founded in 1865, built everything from luxury hotels to stadiums across Asia, and was the force behind some of Mumbai’s iconic buildings such as the Reserve Bank of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange.
But the Mistrys were most recently known for a feud with the Tata Group.
Cyrus Mistry’s untimely demise led to an outpouring of tributes from prominent people.
“He was a promising business leader who believed in India’s economic prowess. His passing away is a big loss to the world of commerce and industry,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Sunday.
Pallonji Mistry had accumulated a net worth of almost $29 billion at the time of his death, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Most of the family wealth, however, derived from being the largest minority shareholder in Tata Sons.
Cyrus Mistry was named Tata Sons chairman in 2012, becoming only the second top official not to bear the Tata family name. Before he took the helm of the salt-to-software conglomerate, he was groomed by Ratan Tata himself for a year. Mistry’s shock ouster four years later triggered a public courtroom and boardroom battle between the two prominent corporate clans.
Last year, India’s top court ruled that Cyrus Mistry’s ouster was legal and also upheld Tata Group’s rules on minority shareholder rights, which made it difficult to sell shares without board approval. That meant the stake, worth almost $30 billion in early 2022, was basically illiquid, according to a Bloomberg report.
His older brother, Shapoor Mistry, is chairman of the SP Group. They set up venture capital firm Mistry Ventures LLP in 2018. Cyrus Mistry is survived by his wife Rohiqa and their two sons.
Mistry, who is of Indian and Irish descent, studied at the Cathedral & John Connon School in Mumbai. A graduate in civil engineering from London’s Imperial College and in management from the London Business School, Mistry described himself as a voracious reader of business books and golfer, and shared his family’s love of horses, according to a Reuters report. He is a fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Some, who worked closely with Cyrus Mistry, remembered him as a gentleman with a keen understanding of technology, great business sense and love for good food.
(With inputs from agencies)