A Gujarati appointed as CEO and MD of Infosys

Ahmedabad:

Infosys on Saturday appointed Salil Parekh as its CEO and Managing Director, concluding the 3-month high-profile executive search at the country’s second largest IT firm.

Salil Parekh is Gujarati.

Parekh, who will take over on January 2, 2018 for a period of five years, was a member of the Group Executive Board at French firm Capgemini. This is the second time Infosys is bringing in an outsider for the top job.

UB Pravin Rao, who was filling in the CEO role on interim basis, will now continue as Chief Operating Officer and a whole-time Director of the company, Infosys has said in a statement.

Sikka, who was brought in from SAP in 2014, was the first non-founder CEO at the over USD 10 billion company. In August this year, he resigned from the company following months of acrimony with high-profile founders.

Nandan Nilekani, one of the co-founders of Infosys, was brought in as Non-executive Chairman to restore order at the embattled company.

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy on Saturday expressed satisfaction at the appointment of Salil S Parekh as the new CEO and MD of the company. He welcomed Parekh’s appointment and wished him well for the new role.

Murthy had a protracted stand off with the previous Infosys management over issues of corporate governance and compensation to former executives, leading to the abrupt resignation of the then CEO, Vishal Sikka.

“I am happy that Infosys has appointed Salil Parekh as the CEO. My best wishes to him,” Murthy said in a brief statement. He, however, did not answer detailed queries on the development.