Shantanu Naidu: Youngest GM who earned Ratan Tata's trust and friendship

Ratan Naval Tata, the former Tata Group chairman, breathed his last at south Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital where he had been admitted for the last few days. He was 86.

In his LinkedIn post, Tata’s closest aide and assistant Shantanu Naidu wrote a note on their close friendship and hole it has now left.

“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,” he wrote.

Ratan Tata despite not having children embraced Naidu and treating him like a son.

Naidu, born and raised in Pune, started working with Tata in May 2022.

He holds an engineering degree from Savitribai Phule Pune University and an MBA from Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management.  He began his career as an automobile design engineer at Tata Elxsi.

He project to protect stray dogs from traffic accidents had caught attention of Tata, who himself was an avid dog lover.

After writing a letter to Tata about his project, Naidu was invited for a meeting. That marked the beginning of a friendship and professional start-up for the two. Naidu also founded Goodfellows, a start-up that provides companionship services to senior citizens, a venture reportedly valued at Rs 5 crore. Tata had invested in the start-up.