Tata Trusts names Siddhartha Sharma as CEO, "Uppaluri" as COO

 

The Tata Trusts, along with the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, along with associated trusts, provide financial support of about ₹2,000 crore annually

Tata Trusts, the philanthropic arm of the Tata group and the largest shareholder in the group holding company, named Siddharth Sharma, 58, as its chief executive officer and Aparna Uppaluri, 48, as its chief operating officer.

Sharma, a career bureaucrat of over two and a half decades, retired from government service in 2018 to join the Pranab Mukherjee Foundation. In February 2019, N. Joins Tata Sons as Chief Sustainability Officer under the chairmanship of Chandrasekaran.

Sharma's appointment comes after the retirement of Srinath Narasimhan in October last year. The trustees appointing an in-house candidate for the key job, which involves distributing funds to charitable causes from profits made by the business house, is not surprising as it has traditionally opted for a Tata executive.

The previous incumbent, Narasimhan held top executive and board positions within the group, including managing director of Tata Teleservices Limited, before taking over as CEO of the philanthropic arm. Before Narasimhan, R. Venkataramanan held that position but as the Managing Trustee. Both were executive assistants to Ratan Tata at some point in their careers when he was chairman of Tata Sons. Tata is now the honorary chairman of Tata Sons, but continues to hold an executive position as chairman of the Tata Trusts.

The role of chief operating officer, however, has been created for the first time. Based on his LinkedIn profile, Uppaluri's previous work has been at the Ford Foundation, a global philanthropic organization, where he served as the executive program director for India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

"Uppaluri is a well-known professional in the field of strategic planning and program development in the fields of philanthropy, women's rights, public health, arts and culture. With over 20 years of leadership and management experience, she has worked to strengthen gender justice Has led the grant-making initiatives at the Ford Foundation to advance its programmatic commitment to philanthropy and has also served as the Program Director to oversee various verticals at the Ford Foundation," said a Tata Trusts statement.

The Tata Trusts is one of India's leading philanthropic organizations, with the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust as well as their associated trusts providing financial support of approximately ₹2,000 crore annually to various initiatives. The trust also holds 66% stake in Tata Sons, the main holding arm of the group.

Global executive search firm Egon Zander assisted with the recruitment process. However, the global head hunter's contribution in hiring Sharma is unclear as he was named from within the Tata group.