Twenty professionals, both from within the country and abroad, are in the race for the position of chief executive officer (CEO) of Tata Trusts, which own 66% of $110.7 billion salt-to-software Tata Group.

“A committee headed by Ratan Tata will be in discussions with the identified individuals, over the next fortnight, to identify the right candidate for the post of Tata Trusts CEO,” said a person in the know of the development, without elaborating further.

A committee of trustees comprising Mr. Tata, chairman of the trusts, and Vijay Singh and Venu Srinivasan, vice-chairmen of the trusts, has been overseeing the operations after R. Venkataramanan relinquished responsibility as the managing trustee of the Tata Trusts on March 31, 2019.

The committee is likely to select a chief executive for the trusts by early next month.

Tata Trusts, which saw inception in 1892, constitute a group of India’s oldest philanthropic organisations, including Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, Sir Ratan Tata Trust, JRD Tata Trust, RD Tata Trust, Tata Education Trust, Tata Social Welfare Trust and Sarvajanik Seva Trust.

Candidates within

Some names from within the Tata group are said to be doing the rounds for the position of CEO of Tata Trusts.

These include N. Srinath, managing director of Tata Teleservices, Sanjay Ubale, head of infrastructure and urban solutions at Tata Sons, and Praveen Kadle, who was heading Tata Capital until April 2018, before moving to another role within the group, said another person in the know of the development.

From India and abroad

“They are all persons of repute from India as well as overseas,” said the source quoted above.

A Tata Trusts spokesperson declined to comment on this issue. Tata Trusts, in a reply to a query from The Hindu, said, “Tata Trusts does not have any comments to make.”