Chandrasekaran was an unusual answer to that crisis. He was the first non-Parsi and professional chairman of Tata Sons. He had spent almost his entire career at TCS, joining the company in 1987 and rising through its ranks to become CEO in 2009. Unlike many senior Tata executives at the time, who came through the Tata Administrative Service (TAS), the group's leadership development programme, Chandrasekaran had built his career within TCS. By the time he was picked for Tata Sons, he had already spent eight years helping make TCS the group's most valuable listed business. He was then asked to run the group spanning steel, automobiles, IT, consumer products, hotels and telecommunications.