Shantanu Naidu, manager and close aide of late Ratan Tata, has been appointed General Manager and Head of Strategic Initiatives at Tata Motors. In a heartfelt LinkedIn post, he announced the career update and reflected on his deep-rooted connection with the company.
“I remember when my father used to walk home from the Tata Motors plant, in his white shirt and navy pants, and I would wait for him in the window. It comes full circle now,” he wrote, alongside a picture of himself with a Tata Nano.
Naidu’s relationship with Ratan Tata was more than professional. The industrialist named him in his will and according to the Times of India, Tata waived Naidu’s education loans and relinquished his stake in Goodfellows, Naidu’s startup that provides companionship to senior citizens.
Following Ratan Tata’s passing on October 9, 2024, Naidu shared a poignant tribute: “The hole that this friendship has now left with me, I will spend the rest of my life trying to fill. Grief is the price to pay for love. Goodbye, my dear lighthouse.”
An engineer from Savitribai Phule Pune University and an MBA graduate from Cornell University, Naidu first joined Tata as his assistant in 2018.