Ratan Tata, the chairman of one of India’s oldest and largest business conglomerates, has been elected to the USC Board of Trustees.

The 131-year-old Tata Group comprises 93 operating companies, including 32 publicly listed enterprises, which employ nearly 215,000 people.

Despite being a major player in the global economy – in 2004-05, the Group’s companies notched up $17.8 billion in revenues and $1.8 billion in profits – the conglomerate has remained true to its core values of “integrity, understanding, excellence, unity and responsibility” and is known for being committed to its employees’ welfare, investing in social-development initiatives and maintaining strict ethical guidelines.

“Ratan Tata is highly esteemed, certainly in India, but in the rest of the world as well for his extraordinary talents as a business leader and his dedication to humanitarianism,” said USC President Steven B. Sample.

“USC is fortunate that he will help guide the university as it expands its global presence, tackles society’s most pressing problems and increases lifelong learning opportunities for our students and alumni,” he said.

“His skills, expertise and global vision will be of enormous benefit not only to our international students – most of whom come from India – but also to our domestic students. Learning to live and compete in the global society of the 21st century is a necessary skill for all our graduates.”

Tata was appointed director-in-charge of The National Radio & Electronics Co. Limited in 1971 and, a decade later, was named chairman of Tata Industries Limited, which he transformed into a strategy think tank for the Tata Group and a promoter of new ventures in high-technology businesses. Tata was appointed chairman of Tata Sons Limited in 1991.

Tata earned a bachelor of science degree in architecture from Cornell University in 1962. He worked briefly with Jones and Emmons in Los Angeles before returning to India in late 1962. He completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1975.

He is associated with various organizations in India and abroad. He is the chairman of the Government of India’s Investment Commission and a member of the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India.

Internationally, he serves on the international advisory boards of the Mitsubishi Corp., the American International Group and J.P. Morgan Chase, the International Investment Council set up by the president of the Republic of South Africa, and the Asia Pacific Advisory Committee to the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange.

Tata also serves on the board of trustees of the Ford Foundation and the Programme Board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s India AIDS Initiative, and chairs the advisory board of RAND’s Center for Asia Pacific Policy, and two of India’s largest philanthropic trusts, the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust.

The Tata Group is India’s largest conglomerate as measured by market capitalization, but its current success is firmly rooted in its 19th century history and the mission that it has adhered to unwaveringly – to place India in the first league of industrialized nations.

Jamsetji Tata started the group with a textile mill in central India when India was struggling to gain independence from British colonial rule. His vision inspired India’s steel and power industries while also contributing landmarks such as the Taj Mahal Hotel, India’s first luxury hotel.

The Tata Group’s better-known companies include Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services and Tata Tea. The conglomerate, which boasts more than 2 million shareholders, operates in more than 40 countries across six continents and exports products and services to 140 nations.