Neemuchwala to exit as Wipro CEO

BENGALURU: Wipro Ltd may have a tough task at hand to fill the void left by the exit of its chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) Abidali Z Neemuchwala, who cited “family commitments” as the reason for his departure.

“The board of directors has initiated a search to identify the next chief executive officer. Abid will continue to hold the office of CEO and managing director until a successor is appointed for a smooth transition and to ensure that business continues as usual,” the company said in a filing to the stock exchanges on Friday.

Analysts said it’s not going to be easy for the IT services company to quickly find a suitable person to fill Neemuchwala’s shoes.

“Finding a new CEO for a company as large as Wipro is going to be a Herculean task, especially given the challenges the company is going through,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst, founder and CEO at Greyhound Research. “Having said that, Wipro has made a course correction over the past few years. Abid has done a phenomenal job in taking Wipro forward.”

Gogia said it’s critical that the incoming CEO is “new-age, understands digital, and can bring in more elements of IP (intellectual property) assets”. He added: “The person should ideally have a mix of services and software background as they can’t be doing services alone. It has to be IP first.”

Neemuchwala’s exit comes four years after he was elevated as Wipro’s CEO on 1 February 2016. Earlier, since April 2015, he was the group president and chief operating officer.

The company didn’t respond to an email query on whether it has appointed any headhunters for the CEO’s search.