Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, heads one of India’s largest conglomerates of 96 companies, 28 of which are publicly listed, in seven business sectors with operations in more than 54 countries. The Group was founded by Jamsetji Tata in the mid 1800s. Its revenues in 2005 – 2006 exceeded $21 billion. The 96 companies, which employ close to 250,000 people, sell their products and services to 120 countries.

Corporate values: integrity, understanding, excellence, unity, and responsibility.

Corporate social responsibility: Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, Sir Ratan Tata Trust.

Personal profile

Ratan Tata, 69, was born in Mumbai (then Bombay) on 28 December 1937.

He was the first born of his parents Soonoo and Naval Hormusji Tata.

Present job – Chairman Tata Sons

Education – B.Sc in Architecture from Cornell University, 1962

Advance Management program at Harvard Business School, 1975

Family - Bachelor

Honoured with one of India’s highest Civilian awards, the Padma Bhushan, in 2000

Leisure – Flying F-16s!! In February 2007, Ratan Tata made news as he briefly took control as a co-pilot, of the combat fighter F-16 at the Aero India Show in Bangalore.

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Vodafone’s chief executive officer Arun Sarin is expanding his company’s operations from Europe’s saturated mobile markets to new emerging markets. Vodafone is the world’s largest mobile phone company in terms of revenue, with 200 million subscribers. Close to 6 million new subscribers sign up for service each month.

Arun Sarin, an Indian-born American, plans to make Hutchison Essar India’s largest mobile company by 2010, with a market share of 25%.

Vodafone ranked number one in Accountability Rating 2006.

Corporate values: Trust and Accountability

Corporate social responsibility: Impact on society and environment – reuse and recycling, energy and climate change.

Personal profile

Arun Sarin, 52, was born in Panchmari, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Present job – Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone, since 2003

Education – B.Tech., IIT, Kharagpur, 1972

M.S in Engineering & MBA from University of California, Berkeley, 1978

Family – Married with two children

Leisure – Golf, music, reading

Other offices – Has served as a director of The Gap, Inc, The Charles Schwab Corporation, and Cisco Systems, Inc. He has recently been appointe a non-executive director of the Court of the Bank of England.

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PepsiCo is one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies. With a portfolio of 17 brands including Pepsi-Cola, Tropicana juices and Gatorade sports drinks, its annual revenues exceed $32 billion.

Indra Nooyi, 51, is the highest ranking corporate woman of South Asian descent in the United States. She ranks number four in the Forbes Most powerful Women 2006 list, and has been with PepsiCo since 1994.

Personal profile

Indra Nooyi was born on 28 October 1955 in Chennai (then Madras).

Present job – Chief executive Officer, PepsiCo, since October 2006

Education – B.Sc Chemistry, Madras Christian College

Masters in Finance & Marketing, IIM, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta)

Masters in Public and Private Management, Yale University

Family – Married with two children

Other responsibilities – serves on boards of Motorola, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York’s Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts

Began her career in India with Johnson & Johnson

Migrated to the U.S. from India in 1978

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