: He was one of the world's most influential industrialists yet he never appeared on any list of billionaires. He controlled over 30 companies that operated in over 100 countries across six continents yet lived an unpretentious life. Ratan Naval Tata, who died at a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday night at the age of 86 years, enjoyed a perhaps unique status -- a corporate titan who was considered a 'secular living saint' with a reputation for decency and integrity.
Tata joined the family firm after acquiring a B.S. in architecture from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, in 1962.
He initially worked on the shop floor, gaining experience in a number of Tata Group businesses before being named director in charge of one of them, the National Radio and Electronics Co in 1971. He became chairman of Tata Industries a decade later and in 1991, took over as the chairman of the Tata Group from his uncle, JRD, who had been in charge for more than half a century. This was the year when India opened its economy and Tata soon turned the group, which began as a small textile and trading firm in 1868, into a global powerhouse with operations stretching from salt to steel, cars to software, power plants and airlines.
He was the chairman of Tata Sons, the group's main holding company, for more than two decades during which the conglomerate aggressively sought to expand, acquiring London-based Tetley Tea in 2000 for USD 431.3 million, buying truck-manufacturing operations of South Korea's Daewo.