Tata Sons has appointed N.S. Rajan, partner and global leader (People and Organisation) in Ernst & Young, as its Chief Human Resources Officer. Rajan will succeed present Group HR Head Satish Pradhan on May 9, 2013, and report to Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus P. Mistry. He will also be a member of the group executive council.

A graduate in Economics from Loyola College, Chennai, and a postgraduate in Business Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur, Rajan is currently pursuing doctoral studies with the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. His three decades of work experience spans industry and consulting in companies like Ranbaxy, Asian Paints, BlowPlast, ABC Consultants, Asia Online and E&Y. He joined E&Y in 2001 as Indian People & Organisation (P&O) Practice Leader.

A former national president of the National HRD Network (NHRDN), Rajan has served as a member of various CII National Committees and has been a member of the Governing Council of the Consultancy Development Centre under the aegis of the Government of India’s Ministry of Science & Technology.

Rajan has received awards such as “Outstanding HR Leadership” by Hindustan Times HR Leadership Awards, 2012, and “HR Professional of the Year 2008” by NHRDN. He has been cited in many academic texts on HR and is a visiting faculty and guest speaker at premier business schools like IIM-Ahmedabad, and XLRI, Jamshedpur.