Tata Sons appoints Shuva Mandal as Group General Counsel

NEW DELHI: Tata Sons on Tuesday announced the appointment of Shuva Mandal as Group General Counsel to succeed incumbent Bharat Vasani, who is set to move to a strategic and advisory role before retiring next year.

Announcing a second big appointment in two days, Tata Sons said Mandal will join the company with effect from July 2017.

Yesterday, Tata Sons announced the appointment of Saurabh Agrawal to a newly created position of Group Chief Financial Officer to drive the over USD 100 billion salt-to-software conglomerate's capital allocation decisions and investment management. Currently, he is the Aditya Birla Group's Head of Strategy. Agrawal will join Tata Sons with effect from July 2017.

Mandal will step into position of Vasani, the current Group General Counsel of Tata Sons for the last 17 years. He has been advising the Tata group on various matters. In his early days, he worked with the Tata group as a legal adviser to Tata Motors and Tata Chemicals on multiple international projects.

As a prelude to his retirement next year, Vasani has expressed a desire to move into a more strategic and advisory role. Accordingly, he will continue with the group as legal adviser to the chairman's office, it added.

Commenting on the appointment, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran said Mandal brings wide-ranging legal experience and energy into the important role as the Group General Counsel. "His time spent at India's top legal firms have given him a ringside view of different legal strategies and his long experience of working with multiple Tata companies in the past will hold him in good stead in his new role," Chandrasekaran added.

Mandal has over 17 years of experience in the legal profession and has advised leading Indian enterprises, global private equity firms as well as Fortune 500 companies.

He is a graduate of the National Law School, Bangalore and began his career with legal firm AZB Associates between 2000-15 before moving to Shardul Amarchand & Co (Advocates & Solicitors) as Partner and National Practice Head for Corporate, M&A and Private Equity.

The two appointments come three months after N Chandrasekaran took charge as the chairman of Tata Sons -- the promoter of major operating Tata companies.