Who is Cyrus P Mistry?

From construction to heading the salt-to-software conglomerate, it will be total transformation for the 43-year-old Cyrus Pallonji Mistry who has been named to succeed Ratan Tata as head of the Tata Group.

Mistry, already a director in Tata Sons board, will don a new hat, when he takes over as the head of over USD 80-billion Tata Group.

Head of the USD 2.5 billion construction group Shapoorji Pallonji, Mistry was appointed to the board of Tata Sons in 2006. He holds non-executive position on boards of several other companies.

At present, he is a director of Tata Sons and Tata Elxsi (India). He was also a part of the five-member selection committee set up to find Ratan Tata's successor.

Born on July 4, 1968, Cyrus Pallonji Mistry is a graduate in Civil Engineering from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London.

He also holds a Masters Degree in Management from the London Business School and is a Fellow at the Institution of Civil Engineers.

The daughter of Cyrus, Aloo, is married to Noel Tata, half brother of Ratan Tata. Noel Tata is the CEO of the retail arm of Tata Group. Mistry is also a fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

After joining in 1991 as a director, Mistry is often credited with taking Shapoorji Pallonji Group to new heights, which now employs over 23,000 employees and has strong presence in India, besides the Middle East and Africa.

Mistry also serves as a director on the board of Forbes Gokak, Afcons Infrastructure and United Motors (India).

"He has been on the Board of Tata Sons since August 2006 and I have been impressed with the quality and calibre of his participation, his astute observations and his humility," Tata said.

He further said: "I will be committed to working with him over the next year to give him the exposure, the involvement and the operating experience to equip him to undertake the full responsibility of the Group on my retirement."

Mistry said: "I take this responsibility very seriously and in keeping with the values and ethics of the Tata Group, I will undertake to legally disassociate myself from the management of my family business to avoid any issue of conflict of interest."

The five-member committee formed in August last year comprised Tata Sons Director R K Krishna Kumar, Tata Sons former Vice-Chairman N A Soonawala, Group Director Cyrus Mistry, Group Adviser and Lawyer Shirin Bharucha and influential British businessman Lord Kumar Bhattacharya.

Tata, who took over as Chairman in 1991 from JRD Tata, is responsible for bringing the group to the global map with the acquisitions of Corus Steel and Jaguar Land Rover.