Air India setup overhauled

At present, the airline is without a CEO as former Turkish Airways chief Mehmet Ilker Ayci had turned down the offer following opposition in India

Representational image.: File photo.

TT Special Correspondent   |   Mumbai   |  16.04.22  :  Tata Sons has shifted four Air India board members to top management positions and appointed four others to senior roles.

Air India veterans R. S. Sandhu who was the director operations along with Meenakshi Malik director commercial, Vinod Hejmadi director finance and Amrita Sharan director personnel will take up top positions.

In an internal message issued on Thursday, N. Chandrasekaran, the Tata group chief who is also the chairman of Air India, said Sandhu is being re-appointed chief of operations and Hejmadi chief financial officer.

Sharan will be the advisor to the chief executive officer for HR and Malik the advisor for commercial technology and other areas.

Last month, Tata Sons appointed Chandrasekaran as the chairman of Air India.

It also appointed Sanjiv Mehta, the CEO and managing director of Hindustan Unilever, and Alice Vaidyan, the former chairman and  managing director of General Insurance Corporation, as independent directors.

The airline is at present without a CEO: the Tatas’ first choice, former Turkish Airways chief Mehmet Ilker Ayci, turned down the offer following opposition in India because  of his previous political associations.

The Tatas have also appointed senior personnel from other group companies. Nipun Aggarwal, the senior vice-president of Tata Sons, is now the chief commercial officer, while Suresh Dutt Tripathi, who was with Tata Steel till 2021, will be the chief human resources officer.

Satya Ramaswamy, who has worked at TCS, was appointed as chief digital and technology officer, and Rajesh Dogra the head of customer experience and ground handling.