- Tuesday, February 04, 2025
The legendary industrialist had developed a close bond with his millennial friend and mentored him in setting up a few startups
By: India Weekly
THE CLOSE aide and confidant of Ratan Tata, Shantanu Naidu, has been made the General Manager, Head – Strategic Initiatives at Tata Motors.
Naidu made this announcement on his LinkedIn profile, and recalled how is father, a Tata Motors employee used to walk home from the plant and he used to wait for him at his house.
In his LinkedIn profile, Naidu mentions that he did his engineering from Savitribai Phule Pune University in 2014 and completed his MBA at Cornell University in 2016.
He became a design engineer and caught Ratan Tata’s attention when he developed an innovation in 2014 that aimed to protect homeless dogs from speeding vehicles.
Being an animal lover, Tata decided to invest in the project and soon became his mentor.
In 2018, Naidu began working as Ratan Tata’s assistant, and they developed a close friendship.
In 2021, Naidu founded Goodfellows, a startup dedicated to helping elderly people living alone in India.
Tata died on October 9 last year at the age of 86, and was accorded a state funeral.
The noted industrialist named Naidu in his will and relinquished his stake in Goodfellows. He also waived Naidu’s student loan.
