Overview
- Family, friends and business leaders gathered Saturday morning at the Cathedral of the Holy Name in Colaba for final tributes, with her remains laid to rest after a memorial mass.
- Simone Tata died on December 5 at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital at age 95, according to a Tata Group statement.
- Attendees included Shapoor Mistry, Saurabh Agrawal, TV Narendran, Jamshyd Godrej and Praveer Sinha, while Tata Sons chair N Chandrasekaran was away traveling.
- She joined Lakmé’s board in the early 1960s, became chair in 1982, led the 1990s sale to Hindustan Unilever, and used the proceeds to establish Trent, which launched the Westside retail chain; she served as Trent’s non-executive chair until 2006.
- Beyond business, she guided philanthropic institutions such as the Sir Ratan Tata Institute, and she is survived by her son Noel Tata, daughter-in-law Aloo Mistry and grandchildren Neville, Maya and Leah.