Ratan Tata, the former Tata Group chairman who put a staid and sprawling Indian conglomerate on the global stage with a string of high-profile acquisitions, has died, the Tata Group said in a statement late on Wednesday. He was 86.

Tata, who ran the conglomerate for more than 20 years as chairman, had been undergoing intensive care in a Mumbai hospital.

After graduating with a degree in architecture at Cornell University, he returned to India and in 1962 began working for the group his great-grandfather had founded nearly a century earlier.

He worked in several Tata companies, including Telco, now Tata Motors Ltd as well as Tata Steel Ltd, later making his mark by erasing losses and increasing market share at group unit National Radio & Electronics Company.

In 1991, he took the helm of the conglomerate when his uncle J.R.D. Tata stepped down – the passing of the baton coming just as India embarked on radical reforms that opened up its economy to the world and ushered in an era of high growth.

In one of his first steps, Ratan Tata sought to rein in the power of some heads of Tata Group’s companies, enforcing retirement ages, promoting younger people to senior positions and ramping up control over companies.

A licensed pilot who would occasionally fly the company plane, Ratan Tata never married and was known for his quiet demeanour, relatively modest lifestyle and philanthropic work.

Among his many awards, he received the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour, in 2008 for exceptional and distinguished service in trade and industry.