The Tata Trusts are on the lookout for a new director from the Parsi community as present chairman and Tata group patriarch Ratan Tata gets older.

While Noel Tata is already on the board of one of the Tata Trusts, there are rumours that another prominent member of the Parsi community will join the board soon. One of the names doing the rounds is Mehli Mistry, a low-profile businessman and friend of Ratan Tata.

The present board is full of Ratan Tata loyalists who are also on the board of Tata Sons as trust nominees. As Tata Trusts own 66 per cent stake in Tata Sons, the position of director becomes important for future decisions. Apart from a Parsi member, insiders do not rule out Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran also getting inducted into the Trusts as a director.

Interestingly, Mehli is related to Cyrus Mistry who had locked horns with Ratan Tata after he was ousted as Chairman of the Tata group. Mehli's and Cyrus' fathers were first cousins whose grandfather had in 1865 set up Littlewood Pallonji, a partnership firm that had small beginnings with the construction of a pavement in Girgaum in Mumbai. Of course, later it went on to build several landmark buildings in Mumbai.

The two Mistry families carved out their own businesses. The rift between the cousins now runs deep. Mehli is very close to Ratan Tata and, in order to show his solidarity with the Tata supremo, purchased 25 million shares of Tata Power worth around Rs 200 crore.