Mumbai-headquartered Tata Sons on Friday reappointed Natarajan Chandrasekaran as its chairman for a second five-year term following a board meeting, where group patriarch Ratan Tata was a special invitee.

Tata Sons is the principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata group firms, which include India’s largest IT firm and the conglomerate’s crown jewel Tata Consultancy Services, and the recently-acquired Air India.

Chandrasekaran, 58, is the first non-family business executive to head Tata Sons, taking over from Cyrus Mistry, who was unceremoniously sacked in October 2016 over issues ranging from corporate governance and lacklustre performance of some group companies, to cultural clash.

Ratan Tata, 84, who led the group from 1990 to 2012, expressed satisfaction on the progress and performance of the Tata Group under Chandrasekaran’s leadership and recommended that his term be renewed for another five years, according to a statement by Tata Sons.

“At its meeting on February 11, 2022, the board of Tata Sons reviewed the last five years and considered the reappointment of its Executive Chairman N. Chandrasekaran,” the statement said.

Chandrasekaran's current term ends on February 20.

“It has been a privilege to lead the Tata Group for the last five years and I am delighted at the opportunity to lead the Tata Group for another five years, in its next phase," Chandrasekaran said.

Chandrasekaran, who joined TCS as an intern way back in 1987 after college, rose to become its CEO in 2009, before being elevated as Tata Sons chairman in 2017. His tenure has brought calm and stability at the $103-billion automobile-to-aviation conglomerate, and the past five years have seen business reorganisations as well as mergers and acquisitions in steel, aviation, and digital sectors.

Tata Sons last year acquired debt-laden, state-run Air India for Rs 18,000 crore in what was a homecoming for the airline that was founded by the Tatas in 1932 as Tata Airlines before being nationalised in 1953.

Chandrasekaran this year received the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award, in the Trade and Industry category, joining 16 others, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Serum Institute’s Cyrus Poonawalla, who received the state honour.