Infosys director and chief financial officer V Balakrishnan will resign from Infosys, effective 31 December, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange today. This is the eighth high-profile exit at the IT major ever since Narayana Murthy returned at the helm in June 2013 and comes at a time when Infosys' shares are trading at a record high.
Balakrishnan was also the BPO head at Infosys as well as the chairman of Infosys Lodestone.
Bala was the most obvious contender for the role of CEO once SD Shibulal retires.
"Bala's exit will be a big loss for Infosys. He had a great role to play and it is very sad to see him go. But I am sure Bala has put a good team in place," said former Infosys director Mohandas Pai in an interview with CNBC- TV18.
Infosys has inducted Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar Shah as in independent member on the board while UB Pravin Rao, senior VP at Infosys has been inducted as whole time director.
"I am looking forward to be a a part of the team that will bring about change at Infosys," said Shaw on CNBC-TV18.
She added that Infosys has a good depth of senior management and a good succession plan in place. " Infosys is going through a transformational change. I believe Murthy will be able to allay market concerns," she said.
Commenting on Bala's resignation, NR Narayana Murthy said, "Bala has been an early adopter and a keen anchor-builder of Infosys. It is difficult to imagine Infosys without Bala's passion, commitment, and intellect."
"Bala has played a pivotal role in building the finance function and has been a key driver behind all of out achievements in areas of investor relations and corporate governance, added Infosys CEO SD Shibulal in the press release.
In an interview with CNBC-TV18, V Balakrishnan said it was not appropriate to comment on a possible successor but clarified that his decision to quit was purely a personal once.
Balakrishnan currently does not have any plans of moving on to another IT company.
"I have been thinking about resigning for a while now.. want to get into the private equity space and train young entrepreneurs," said Balakrishnan.
When asked if his exit had anything to do with Murthy's return, Balakrishnan clarified that Murthy's return was the best thing that happened to Infosys and that he he is currently awaiting for Sebi's approval for his private equity fund, which he has formed along with former Infosys executive Mohandas Pai and former Wipro executive Girish Paranjpe.
Yesterday, Subrahmanyam Goparaju, Senior Vice President and a member of the Executive Council that frames business strategy also quit Infosys. Goparaju, who joined the company in 1998, was also heading Infosys Labs, the research and innovation division.
Reuters
Infosys has been witnessing an exodus of its senior-level executives in the past few months.
Last month, Stephen R Pratt the firm's Head of Utilities and Resources for North America had put in his papers. In September, Infosys Head of BPO sales in Australia Kartik Jayaraman and BPO Head Latin America Humberto Andrade had quit the company.
Ashok Vemuri who was heading the company's operations in the Americas put in his papers in August. Infosys Vice President and Financial Services Head for the Americas Sudhir Chaturvedi quit in the same month.
In July, Global Sales Head Basab Pradhan had announced his decision to leave Infosys. The exits come amidst organisational restructuring that company Executive Chairman N R Narayana Murthy is overseeing after returning to revive the sagging fortunes of the company in June.
Experts, however, believe Murthy's return may have gotten a thumb-up from investors but has not gone down well with the senior management.
"I don't think Murthy's return has been taken positively inside the company," Anil Singhvi, Ican Investments told CNBC-TV18.
The pipeline of talent is fast diminishing at Infosys, he added.
According to Ankita Somani of Angel Broking Balakrishnan's exit will not really have an impact from a business perspectives he was not handling any client-facing positions. She, however, cautioned that such high attrition at the top management is bound to effect the stock in the long term.
"Now it is time for somebody new to take over. The decks are getting cleared, S Vishwanathan of Zinnov told CNBC-TV18.
"Murthy has given a strong message. There could be a slight hint on who is going to be the next CEO," he said.
Vishwananthan further said that he had got a hint of Balakrishan's move since the latter had recently offloaded shares in the open market.
via Business - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEGBeFiTsiUr2Dx6PR0UaOmmsFCnw&url=http://www.firstpost.com/business/infosys-v-balakrishnan-resigns-8th-big-exit-in-6-months-1299069.html
Put the internet to work for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment