Cyrus Mistry Hires Gopichand Katragadda As Group CTO Of Tata Sons

In a bid to steer Tata Group’s various business and functions, the sprawling conglomerate’s chairman Cyrus Mistry has tapped one of the world's eminent technocrats to head technology for the $100 billion empire. Gopichand Katragadda, GE India Technology Centre's managing director (MD) and a champion of innovation, is joining Tata Sons as a group chief technology officer (CTO) from August 3 this year.

Katragadda will report to Mistry and be responsible for technology at the group level. This is the first time that Tata Group has created the post of a group CTO.

Gopichand Katragadda, a consultant, professor and author, also serves on the advisory board of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. The Iowa State University electrical engineering PhD graduate has more than 30 publications and five patents to his credit.

According to a statement issued by Tata Sons, Katragadda will help the group management in research and development (R&D), leveraging cross-company synergies, creating technology strategies for white spaces and acting as an evangelist for innovation across group companies.

Katragadda has been leading GE's India technology centre for more than a decade, spearheading a team of over 5,000 engineers and scientists. The Bangalore-based unit is GE's largest R&D outfit outside its home country of the US.

Mistry, who took over as chairman of Tata Sons in 2012, has been putting together a new team comprising of mainly external hires. He brought on board former Ernst and Young executive NS Rajan as group HR head, former London Business School professor Nirmalya Kumar as group head of strategy and ex-BSE CEO Madhu Kannan as group head of business development. (Image: The Economic Times)