Shantanu Naidu's Millennial Dumbledore
Ratan Tata ?earned the nickname 'Millennial Dumbledore ,' a title given to him by his assistant,?Shantanu Naidu , who worked closely with the industrialist starting in 2018. The story behind this title dates back to 2014 when Naidu, then a design engineer at?Tata Group , embarked on a mission to protect stray dogs after witnessing a tragic accident involving one.
Love for dogs Naidu and his friends designed collars with reflectors to make stray dogs more visible to drivers, calling the initiative Motopaws. The very next day, Naidu received a message confirming that a dog’s life had been saved by the collar. "I didn’t know if it would work, but when I woke up the next day, I received a message saying that a dog had been saved because of the collar. It felt amazing," Naidu recalled.
Facing financial challenges, Naidu’s father advised him to write to?Ratan Tata , a known dog lover. Hesitant but hopeful, Naidu sent a handwritten letter and, two months later, was surprised to receive a response from?Tata , inviting him to Mumbai, as per reports.
领英推荐
Tata not only funded the Motopaws project but also introduced Naidu to his own dogs. Their bond grew from there, and in 2018, Tata offered Naidu a position as his assistant after Naidu completed his MBA at?Cornell University .
Shantanu Naidu moved to the USA to pursue an MBA at Cornell University, promising Tata he would work for Tata Trust after graduation. True to his word, upon his return, Naidu received an offer from Tata to be his assistant, which he commenced in 2018. Both Tata and Naidu share a connection through their education at Cornell University. Tata completed his architecture degree there in 1962, and Naidu earned his MBA from the same institution years later.
Following Tata's passing, Naidu expressed his grief on social media, saying, "The hole that this friendship has now left with me, I will spend the rest of my life trying to fill. Grief is the price to pay for love. Goodbye, my dear lighthouse." Naidu had in 2021 published a memoir called ‘I Came Upon a Lighthouse: A Short Memoir of Life with?Ratan Tata ’, chronicling their bond