Tata Sons Ltd. Chairman N Chandrasekaran has made his first high profile hiring, nearly three months after taking over. Saurabh Agrawal, who used to head the strategy team at another Indian conglomerate, the $41 billion Aditya Birla Group, will join Tata Sons as its chief financial officer from July, according to a media statement released by Tata Sons.
A former investment banker, Agrawal was hired by Kumar Mangalam Birla in June 2016 from Standard Chartered Bank. A month later, one of the group's flagship companies UltraTech Ltd. announced a deal to buy out debt-laden Jaypee Associates Ltd.'s cement business. In March this year, Aditya Birla Group also announced a possible merger of its telecom arm Idea Cellular Ltd. with Vodafone Plc.'s Indian business. Once complete, the deal will create the country's largest telecom operator.
Agrawal will be involved in capital allocation decisions, investment management and consolidation of Tata group's business portfolio, said Chandrasekaran.
He brings deep capital markets knowledge and valuable cross-industry experience to this critical leadership role in the Tata Group.N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons
Agrawal graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee and holds a post-graduate management degree from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, the statement added.
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