Parekh named new Infosys CEO & MD, to take over in Jan
BENGALURU: Salil Satish Parekh, who lost out to Vishal Sikka the last time Infosys was hunting for a new chief executive officer in 2014, has now been tasked with leading the company a little over four months after Sikka’s acrimonious exit, with chairman Nan dan Nile kan ia nd the board of India’s second largest outsourcing firm putting their faith in a technology industry veteran of nearly three decades.
The appointment of Parekh, who was a top executive at global IT services giant Cap gemini prior to his latest assignment, marks the second successive time that Info sys has chosen an outsider to helm the company, after being run by its founders for the better part of its first three decades of existence.
Yet, unlike with Sikka, Info sys has played it safe by anointing Parekh, who comes armed with plenty of experience of negotiating multi-million dollar outsourcing deals, which are staple for Info sys and its peers such as T CS, Wipro and US-based Cognizant Technology Solutions. Sikka, on the other hand, came into Info sys in 2014 with the reputation of a strong products and technology leader, but with virtually no experience in the outsourcing industry.
Parekh’s appointment drew immediate praise from Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy, who had a bitter and public fallout with the previous board of Infosys and Sikka during the months preceding his ouster.
“I am happy that Infosys has appointed Mr.Sa lil Parekh as the CEO. My best wishes to him,” Murthy said in a statement to Mint. Unlike Sikka,Parekh is not flashy nor gregarious and is considered to be more amenable to the founders of the company, according to two executives. That Parekh is a more understated executive is reflected by the fact that there is not much information publicly available about the 53-year-old executive, who is an IIT-Bombay graduate and Cornell University alumnus.
Parekh comes in with a reputation of being a leader a dept at executing well in the world of IT.