The success story of Tata Motors Managing Director Karl Slym took a completely different turn when he committed suicide due to apparent domestic problems with his wife.
As per Wikipedia, Karl Jonathon Slym (9 February 1962 – 26 January 2014) was a British businessman and the managing director of Tata Motors from October 2012 until his death in 2014. Slym was born in Derby, United Kingdom. Before joining Tata Motors, Slym was the executive vice president of SGMW Motors, China, and president, managing director and board member of General Motors in India between 2007 and 2011. He was an alumnus of Stanford University and an Sloan Fellow.
Karl Slym's suicide:
The wife of a British businessman who fell from a luxury Bangkok hotel in an apparent suicide has told police that they had rowed at length about a “family problem” before his death.
Karl Slym, 51, the managing director of Tata Motors, India’s biggest carmaker, seemingly climbed through a small window and jumped from his room on the 22nd floor of the five-star Shangri-La hotel while his wife Sally was asleep, Thai detectives believe.
Mrs Slym has told officers that they argued for so long that she “could not talk to her husband any more” in the hours before his death on Saturday night.
Apparent reason for suicide:
Tata Motors Managing Director Karl Slym, who died a mysterious death, and his wife Sally were having problems for quite some time over his work and she wanted him to move back to the UK, Thai police said today.
Quoting from Sally's questioning and testimony, chief investigating officer Somyot Booyakaew said the couple, married for almost three decades, were having marital problems for quite some time.
She said they couldn't live a normal family life because of his work. Slym had to travel a lot while Sally wanted him to have more time but his duties did not allow that to happen, Somyot told reporters.
Before moving to India, Slym, a British national, was with General Motors in China, and Sally wanted him to move back to the UK, he said, referring to the wife's testimony.
People who know him are shocked:
As Firstpost said yesterday and as several newspapers have echoed today, Slym was a people's man. He was that corporate rarity: easily accessible, witty and almost self deprecating. His witty one liners often had us in splits. So it is hard to take in the suicide angle.
Problem element in personal life:
Wikipedia article on him mentions that he and his wife had no children even after 25 years of marriage. They still celebrated their marriage and anniversaries. It is sad end for a life well fought.
