Saurabh Agrawal named Tata Sons CFO

One of India’s most successful investment bankers Saurabh Agrawal has been appointed as the new Chief Financial Officer of Tata Sons, the holding company of salt-to-software conglomerate — $103.51-billion Tata Group.

Agrawal, 48, is currently the Head of Strategy at the Aditya Birla Group — and will join Tata Sons with effect from July, 2017.

He brings deep capital markets knowledge and valuable cross-industry experience to this critical leadership role in the Tata Group. His experience spans over two decades.

This is one of the big appointments since N Chandrasekaran took over as the Chairman of Tata Sons. Agrawal was among the key persons who handled the Idea-Vodafone merger deal for the Aditya Birla Group. The Tatas have been looking for a new CFO to succeed Ishaat Hussain, who retired as Tata Sons finance director in 2012, after he turned 65.

Cyrus Mistry, who was sacked as Tata Sons chairman last year, could not find a replacement for Husssain during his tenure.

Before being associated with the Aditya Birla Group, Agrawal has been Head of the Corporate Finance Unit of Standard Chartered Bank in India and South Asia, and the Head of the Investment Banking Division in DSP Merrill Lynch.

“His expertise will help us in driving rigour and synergy in capital allocation decisions, investment management as well as consolidation and optimisation of the group’s business portfolio. We look forward to his contribution in driving financial performance of the group,” said Chandrasekaran.

“I am honoured to join the Tata group. It is an exciting time for the group under the leadership of Chandrasekaran, and I look forward to contributing to the group’s profitable growth with my experience in corporate finance,” said Agrawal.