Mehli Mistry advocated scrapping the vice-chairman (VC) position at Tata Trusts during a recent board meeting, arguing it was a temporary role created amid past leadership challenges and is now redundant with stable governance in place.
Meeting Context
The discussion occurred at the Tata Education and Development Trust (TEDT) board meeting ahead of a routine Tata Trusts gathering at Mumbai’s World Trade Centre. Mistry highlighted the VC title’s origins during Ratan Tata’s legal disputes with Cyrus Mistry, suggesting it no longer serves purpose under current Chairman Noel Tata.
Trustee Dynamics
Vijay Singh offered to relinquish the VC title, noting it holds no extra powers, while Venu Srinivasan deferred to a collective decision. Mehli Mistry, a TEDT trustee, lacks influence in the principal Sir Dorabji Tata and Sir Ratan Tata Trusts after his reappointment was rejected in October 2025.
Historical Background
VC roles were introduced in 2018 for Singh and Srinivasan during turbulent times. Tensions persist from 2025 trustee exits, including Mistry’s, amid internal differences; TEDT manages a ₹5,000 crore corpus focused on education and scholarships.
Tata Trusts has not commented on the proposal.
