Cyrus Mistry: Remembering former Tata Sons chairman who died in car crash

Tributes have poured in for Cyrus Mistry, the billionaire former chairman of India’s biggest conglomerate Tata, who died in a car crash on Sunday.

Mistry, 54, was ousted from Tata in 2016 in a boardroom coup that sparked a long and bitter legal battle.

The dispute made global headlines, but Mistry was no stranger to the spotlight even before his Tata stint.

His family founded and ran construction behemoth Shapoorji Pallonji group.

While the group had been struggling with debt in recent years, it is still one of India’s largest construction firms.

In April, it said it had repaid lenders and exited a one-time debt restructuring plan that was implemented last year.

This is the second tragedy to hit the Mistry family in just four months – Cyrus Mistry’s father Pallonji Mistry had died in June at the age of 93.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Mistry’s sudden death “a big loss to the world of commerce and industry”.

“He was a promising business leader who believed in India’s economic prowess,” he tweeted.

Several other ministers and political leaders also tweeted their condolences to Mistry’s family.

Union minister Smriti Irani called Mistry a “gentle soul; a man with a vision and a mission”.

Several state chief ministers and opposition leaders also expressed their shock and sadness.

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party, said Mistry was among “the brightest business minds of the country, who made a significant contribution to India’s growth story”.

India’s biggest business leaders also paid tribute to their peer.

Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest man, called Mistry “one of the finest gentleman” he knew.

Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra group, said the news was “hard to digest”.

“I got to know Cyrus well during his all-too-brief tenure as the head of the House of Tata. I was convinced he was destined for greatness. If life had other plans for him, so be it, but life itself should not have been snatched away from him,” he wrote on Twitter.

On Monday morning, Mr Mahindra also tweeted that he was resolving to “always wear [his] seat belt even when in the rear seat of a car” after news reports said that Mistry and a co-passenger who was with him in the back seat weren’t wearing seatbelts – both died in the crash, while the two people in the front are in hospital with injuries.

While Mistry’s ouster from Tata sparked a major corporate feud, his former colleagues at the group also remembered him with love and affection.

In a statement, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) – part of the Tata group – called Mistry a “warm, friendly, and congenial person who built a strong relationship with the TCS family during his time as the Chairman of the company”.

N Chandrasekaran, who is the current chairman of Tata Sons, said he was “deeply saddened” by Mistry’s death.

“He had a passion for life and it is really tragic that he passed away at such a young age,” he said.

Mistry, who graduated from the London Business School, was the youngest son of construction baron Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry. He was often described by friends and colleagues as a soft spoken and candid person.

He was known to enjoy playing golf and was a prolific reader.