News: Ratan Tata’s protégé Shantanu Naidu appointed General Manager & Head of Strategic Initiatives at Tata Motors

Appointments

Ratan Tata’s protégé Shantanu Naidu appointed General Manager & Head of Strategic Initiatives at Tata Motors

Shantanu most recently served as a General Manager at Tata Sons Ltd, working in the late Ratan Tata’s office.
Ratan Tata’s protégé Shantanu Naidu appointed General Manager & Head of Strategic Initiatives at Tata Motors

India’s leading automotive company, Tata Motors, has appointed Shantanu Naidu as General Manager & Head of Strategic Initiatives, effective January 2025.  

Announcing the news on LinkedIn, Shantanu posted, “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as General Manager, Head - Strategic Initiatives at Tata Motors!  

I remember when my father used to walk home from the Tata Motors plant in his white shirt and navy pants, and I would wait for him at the window. It comes full circle now.”  

This is Shantanu’s second leadership stint with the Tata Group, as he most recently held the role of General Manager at Tata Sons Ltd, in the late Ratan Tata’s office. He was the youngest close aide of Ratan Tata, who passed away in October 2024. Their association began when Shantanu founded Motopaws, a social initiative providing reflective collars for stray dogs to prevent road accidents. Ratan Tata, an animal lover, took an interest in his work and later mentored him.  

Shantanu also founded On Your Sparks—a counseling platform for aspiring entrepreneurs—in 2020, and Goodfellows India, a startup for elderly and disabled people, under Ratan Tata’s guidance. He also handled Tata’s social media presence, and assisted Ratan Tata with philanthropic and investment ventures under Tata Trust. He began his career with Tata Technologies and later transitioned to Tata Elxsi and Ratan Tata’s office.  

Upon Ratan Tata’s passing, Shantanu bid him farewell with an emotional note: “The hole that this friendship has now left in me, I will spend the rest of my life trying to fill. Grief is the price to pay for love. Goodbye, my dear lighthouse

Shantanu holds a mechanical engineering degree from Savitribai Phule Pune University and an MBA from Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management. He is also an established author, having published I Came Upon a Lighthouse in 2021. He brings core competencies in data analytics, business strategy, leadership, marketing strategy, and research.  

Recently, Tata Motors also welcomed Pranav Kumar as the new Chief Human Resources Officer in Jamshedpur, effective December 2024. Pranav has been serving the Tata Group since 2008 and most recently held the role of Head of HR for Tata AutoComp in Pune, overseeing HR strategies and the people agenda for over 20,000 employees.

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Topics: Appointments, Business, #Trending

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