Cyrus Mistry
Indian Business Industry Lost A Leader Cyrus Mistry
On September 4th, 2022, the business industry in India suffered a huge loss when Cyrus Pallonji Mistry lost his life in an unfortunate incident. One of the prominent names in the Indian business industry, Cyrus Mistry, met an untimely demise at the age of 54 in a car accident.
The incident happened when Cyrus Mistry, along with Jehangir Pandole, Anahita Pandole, and Darius Pandole, was returning from Ahmedabad to Mumbai after attending a religious event.
Their car met an accident on a bridge over the Surya River into a road divider in Palghar, Maharashtra. The car crash was so severe that Cyrus Mistry and Jehangir Pandole died on the spot. Darius Pandole and Anahita Pandole suffered severe injuries and are currently undergoing surgeries.
‘The economist’ in a 2013 article, categorized him as “the most important industrialist in India and Britain.”
Cyrus Pallonji Mistry was born on July 4th, 1968, in Mumbai, Maharashtra, in a Parsi family. He was the younger son of Indian billionaire and construction magnate Pallonji Mistry and Patsy Perin Dubash. Although both of his parents come from Indian roots, his mother was born in Ireland, and his father was an Irish citizen.
Cyrus Mistry was also an Irish Citizen and a permanent resident of India. Cyrus Mistry had an elder brother and two sisters. His elder brother Shapoor Mistry is also an Irish citizen and is married to Behroze Sethna.
His sister Laila is married to a London-based portfolio fund manager Rustom Jehangir and his sister Aloo is married to Noel Tata, who is half-Indian-Parsi, half-French-Catholic half-brother of Ratan Tata.
Cyrus Mistry was married to Rohiqa Chagla. She is the daughter of lawyer Iqbal Chagla and granddaughter of jurist M.C. Chagla. The couple has two sons, Firoz Mistry and Zahan Mistry.
Cyrus Mistry completed his initial education at Cathedral & John Connon School in South Mumbai. He then went on to complete his bachelor’s in Engineering in civil engineering from Imperial College London in 1990. Later he completed an International Executive Master’s in management from the University of London in 1996.
In 1991, Cyrus Mistry joined Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. Ltd., his family construction company, as a director. Later he went on to become the Managing Director of Shapoorji Pallonji & Company, a part of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group. At the same time, he also was the chairman of Tata Sons and the Tata Group.
Cyrus Mistry’s father retired from Tata Sons in 2005, and a year later, on September 1st, 2006, Cyrus joined the board of Tata Sons. During his course at Tata group, he served as a Director of Tata Elxsi Limited and was a Director of Tata Power Co. Ltd.
Once Ratan Tata retired from his position as chief executive, Cyrus Mistry was appointed the chairman of Tata Sons in 2013 by the board of Tata Sons.
In addition, he was also chairman of all major Tata companies, including Tata Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Power, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Teleservices, Indian Hotels, Tata Global Beverages, and Tata Chemicals.
However, the board of Tata Sons then voted to remove Cyrus Mistry from the Chairmanship of Tata Sons in October 2016. Ratan Tata then took over the interim chairman position until a few months later, Natarajan Chandrasekaran was named as the new chairman.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), in December 2019, declared the appointment of Chandrasekaran as executive chairman illegal and restored Mistry.
However, in January 2020, the Supreme Court dismissed NCLAT’s order. Cyrus then went on to cross-appeal in court; however, the Supreme Court upheld his dismissal. Cyrus Mistry, through his company, Cyrus Investments Pvt. Ltd., owned an 18.4% stake in Tata Sons.
On the unfortunate day of September 4th, 2022, Mistry, along with three members of the Pandole family, visited the Iranshah Atash Behram at Udvada to offer prayers following the death of Dinshaw Pandole and Pallonji Mistry, as confirmed by Zoroastrian high priest Khurshed Dastoor.
On their way to returning from Udvada to Mumbai, their Mercedes-Benz GLC crashed at a speed of 90 km/hr into a road divider on a bridge over the Surya River near Charoti in the Palghar district.
Cyrus Mistry and Jehangir Pandole, sitting in the back seat without wearing their seat belts, were killed instantly after the crash when they hit the back of the car’s front seats. The driver, Dr. Anahita Pandole, and her husband, Darius Pandole, in the front row passenger seat, were wearing seat belts and survived with serious injuries.
The death of Cyrus Mistry wqas a double blow to the Mistry family, as they had lost Pallonji Mistry, father of Cyrus Mistry, quite recently in June 2022.
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