Alan Rosling will soon join Tata Sons as executive director and will be a member of the Group Corporate Centre.

Mr Rosling has been based in Mumbai since 1998 and was, till recently, the chairman of the Jardine Matheson Group, India. The group has a 20 per cent stake in Tata Industries, and in his capacity as a Jardine Matheson representative, Mr Rosling served as a director on the boards of Tata Industries and Tata Automotive Components. He has also served as managing director of Concorde Motors, a joint venture between Jardine Motors and the Tata Group, prior to the sale of the Jardine stake to the Tatas in 2002.

Mr Rosling has considerable international experience. He served as special advisor to Prime Minister, John Major in his policy unit from 1991-93. He has also served as strategy development director at United Distillers plc, the world's largest spirits company, and as chief executive of Piersons, a division of Courtaulds Textiles plc. He started his career as an investment banker with S.G. Warburg & Co. Limited.

Mr Rosling studied at Downing College, Cambridge University, where he took a Double First in History. He was awarded a Harkness Fellowship in 1986 to go to the Harvard Business School, from where he graduated as a Baker Scholar. He was awarded an OBE by the British Government in 1994.