new delhimumbai a new air india ai board led by tata group chairman n chandrasekaran will be formed soon even as several group executives from tcs airasia india and tata steel are expected to move to the ailing carrier to revive operations chandrasekaran who is awaiting security clearance from the centre to lead the air india board will bring in an expat ceo to pilot the carrier this will be his second expat ceo hire after german citizen puneet chhatwal for taj hotels going by the tata groups current board format ratan tata is expected to be chairman emeritus of ai which will mark his return to the carrier after years ratan tata who holds a pilot licence for fixedwing aircraft and helicopters was the ai chairman in the mid1980s since ai is a public company rules require it to have a minimum of three and a maximum of 15 directors on its board said shareholder advisory firm ingoverns founder shriram subramanian ideally it should have a minimum of six directors for enough diversity ai until now had seven members on its board on thursday two government nominee directors s k mishra and v a patwardhan and its chairman md vikram dev dutt resigned from the board after the tata group formally took charge of ai from the centre ai was originally launched by former tata group chairman j r d tata in 1932 asthe nations first carrier ais four functional directors vinod hejmadi finance r s sandhu operations meenakshi mallik commercial and amrita sharan personnel will continue on the board of the carrier security clearance of directors chosen by the tata group willseveral tata group executives will be transferred to ai with some being shifted to handle specific projects they will have to return to their original employers after completion of the tasks said a source already many of them had worked on the duediligence of ai before the conglomerate had put in its bid for the carrier chances are high that ais new chief technologydigital officer and the chief hr officer will be from tcs and tata steel said the same person tcs will be managing ais it and digital operations while tata steel which is the first indian company to have an hr department in 1947 will handle issues relating to ais multiple unions ai comes with a highly unionised workforce with a history of disrupting schedules for demands likewise people from tata motors and tajsats will assist the carriers ground fleet and inflight meal catering operations the person said