Mumbai: Nirmalya Kumar, a former member of Tata Sons’ now-disbanded group executive council (GEC), on Saturday said he was in fact fired the same Monday evening that Cyrus P. Mistry was removed from the top job. This is in contrast with Tata Sons’ announcement that Kumar had decided to leave.

In a blog post on Saturday and titled “I Just Got Fired!", Kumar said he was informed by a colleague over the phone that he is fired- hoursafter Tata Sons said it had removed Mistry as chairman.

The revelation comes a day after Tata Sons announced organizational changes in a statement, adding that Kumar, along with N.S. Rajan and Madhu Kannan “have decided to explore options outside Tata Sons and have left the services of the company".

The three were part of the five-member GEC, which was disbanded on 24 October after the removal of Mistry as the chairman of Tata Sons.

Earlier this week, Tata Chemicals Ltd said in a BSE filing that non-executive director Kumar has resigned from its board with effect from 31 October.

“It was not as if I was fired for non-performance (my last evaluation was excellent). I always do my best – it’s the least I expect from myself and the most anyone can expect from me. I was fired for just being there at my position – working intensely and extensively with Cyrus," Kumar wrote in the post. “With three exceptions, the many CEOs and top executives I worked with closely for three years went silent."

Kumar is visiting professor of marketing at London Business School and Distinguished Fellow, Emerging Markets Institute at INSEAD. He has served on several boards ACC Ltd, Bata India Ltd and UltraTech Cement Ltd.

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