In March this year, GoAir (now rebranded GoFirst), the low-cost airline owned by the Wadia Group announced Jehangir Nusli Wadia (also known as Jeh Wadia) had stepped down as managing director. The company also announced the appointment of Ben Baldanza, the former CEO of Spirit Airlines, and an airline industry veteran, as the vice-chairman of the board.
Jeh is the younger of the two sons of industrialist Nusli Wadia. Aviation was close to Jeh and it was he who had founded GoAir in 2005. So, his decision to step away from the airline was surprising.
A key element of the transition plan at GoAir, according to the company, was to “further strengthen the management of the company by bringing on-board proven industry professionals.”
But, then in the last few months, Jeh stepped down from all the listed companies of The Wadia Group. “Jehangir N. Wadia, a non-executive director, who retires by rotation at the ensuing AGM in terms of Section 152 of the Companies Act, 2013, has not offered himself for re-appointment,” Britannia Industries said in its annual report.
The proposal was accepted at Britannia’s annual general meeting held on September 6, 2021, and the company has informed that Jeh ceased to be a director from this date. The company is also not filling the vacancy left post his retirement as the non-executive director.
Jeh Wadia who retires by rotation also did not offer himself for reappointment at another Wadia group firm—The Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation. Earlier this year, he also stepped down as the managing director at The Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Company, after which the company again said the objective was “professionalisation of management.”
He also doesn’t feature on the board of The Wadia Group’s other listed company National Peroxide where his elder brother Ness Wadia is the non-executive chairman and promoter-director.
Ness was also re-appointed as the managing director of The…