Ratan Naval Tata (born December 28, 1937) is a former chairman of Tata Sons and an Indian industrialist. From 1990 to 2012, he served as chairman of Tata Group, and from October 2016 to February 2017, he served as interim chairman, and he continues to lead the company's charitable trusts. He has received two of India's highest civilian honors, the Padma Vibhushan (2008) and Padma Bhushan (2000).
He is the son of Naval Tata, who was adopted by Sir Ratan Tata, son of Jamsetji Tata, the founder of the Tata Group, and was born in 1937. He graduated from Cornell University's College of Architecture in 1975 and Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program in 1975. He joined his company in 1961 after working on the Tata Steel shop floor, and he was J. R. D. Tata's apparent successor when the latter retired in 1991. To transform Tata from a predominantly India-centric company into a global corporation, he got Tata Tea to buy Tetley, Tata Motors to buy Jaguar Land Rover, and Tata Steel to buy Corus.