Ronen Sen slams Cyrus Mistry for “orchestrated leaks” of documents

MUMBAI: Ronen Sen, the head of nomination and remunaration commitee at Tata Sons, today slammed Cyrus Mistry for orchestating leaks. His statement came just two days after media reports “quoting sources” claimed that Mistry was lauded for his performance just four months before his ouster from Tata Sons. However, he did not authenticated nor denied earlier reports.

"I have not and will not comment on the veracity or otherwise of confidential and internal documents being leaked in a selective and motivated manner by "sources close to the former chairman", contrary to norms governing privileged information. I leave it to you to arrive at your own conclusions on whether these orchestrated leaks, unless denounced by him, will enhance or further diminish the confidence of his fellow directors on the board of Tata Sons,” Ronen Sen, who is an independent director of Tata Sons and an ex-ambassador to US, said in an e-mail statement.

Sen added, “I will also not stoop to the level of the unidentified ‘person’ ‘close to the former chairman’ who has implicitly questioned my integrity and explicitly alleged that I, and another respected colleague on the board, of ‘clearly having failed to apply their mind independently and discharge their fiduciary duty’ by dignifying the charge with a response. The implied assumption that there were no developments between the meeting of the Nomination & Renumeration Committee and the Board meeting on the 24th October is also naive to put it mildly.”


As per earlier reports, the nomination and remuneration committee which met on June 28, after reviewing Mistry's performance, unanimously recorded its recognition of his significant contribution across group companies. In the meeting, Sen reportedly said that judging by his experience garnered from site visits, Mistry had earned the respect not only of CEOs and senior management but also operational personnel.

Notably, in the fateful Tata Sons board meeting on October 24, at which Mistry was ousted, Sen and Singh had backed his ouster.