New Delhi, June 3 -- In the Tata folklore, some outsiders who played an influential role in building the Tata group were deemed "more Tata than the Tatas". Among them: Tata Group founder Jamsetji Tata's nephew Nowroji Saklatwala; financial wizard A.D. Shroff; and former Tata Sons Ltd vice-chairman Noshir Soonawala, 92.

In recent times, Farokh Subedar, 71, a chartered accountant and Tata Group veteran who has worked closely with Soonawala and four Tata Sons chairmen, also figures in that list as a key confidant of Noel Tata.

As challenges mount for him, Tata, who chairs Tata Trusts, has drafted Subedar, who retired from Tata Sons in 2017, to bridge the Tata Group's past and present to shape its future. The trusts hold a controlling stake...