Nilekani back as Infosys chairman
CEO from 2002 to 2007.
His comeback mirrors the return of Murthy in June 2013 when he was brought in to orchestrate a turnaround of the company’s flagging fortunes.
“I am happy to return to Infosys, now in the role of non-executive chairman, and look forward to working with my colleagues on the board and in executive management on the business opportunities we see before us and delivering benefits to our clients, shareholders, employees and communities. I thank Vishal for his service as the CEO of Infosys over the last three years and wish him well in his future endeavors,” Nilekani said in a statement.
Nilekani is expected to take charge of Infosys’s hunt for its next CEO and also help reconstitute the board of the company which has, over the past 18 months, come under fire for alleged lapses of corporate governance.
Mint had reported earlier on Thursday that Nilekani was likely to return as chairman and that he had insisted on a clean slate as one of the primary conditions for his return, raising the prospect of a massive overhaul of the board.
Earlier on Thursday, Mint also reported that the entire board, barring two directors, had offered to resign.
Mint also reported that Nilekani himself was likely to want to retain at least a few board members, such as Venkatesan and D.N. Prahlad, since he wants a functional board to start with.
“Nandan is the ideal leader for Infosys at this stage in the company’s development. His appointment will allow Infosys to focus on the strategic changes it needs to make in order to capitalize on the attractive opportunities in the years ahead. Under Nandan, Infosys will build a cohesive management team that will no doubt take the company to a leadership position in the industry. I believe these changes will infuse further confidence to the stakeholders in executing the transition plan and in reinforcing the strategy for the future,” Seshasayee said in the statement.
It’s been more than a decade since the Oscar-winning feature length documentary An Inconvenient Truth alerted audiences to the catastrophic consequences of climate change.
In the intervening years, former US vice-president Al Gore has continued his crusade for a renewable energy revolution.
While the first film made extensive use of the slideshow format, the cleverly titled sequel follows the Nobel Peace Prize activist on his travels around the world in a bid to shake up international climate policy. (His globetrotting approach, incidentally, has earned him quite a few critics, and calls of ‘hypocrite’.)
Anyway, Gore argues powerfully and effectively that if political and corporate lobbyists are not ignored, and stringent corrective measures are not implemented, we will continue to wit- ness extreme temperatures and apocalyptic natural disasters such as the melting of the ice caps and resultant floods in cities as far-flung as Miami and Chennai.
Taking over from David Guggenheim, who helmed the original, co-directors Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk (who also serves as cinematographer) present Gore as a “recovering politician” dedicated to the cause of our environmental future.
They show him at the 2015 Paris climate conference, negotiating with the dissenting Indian delegation and eventually even persuading them to vote in favour of the treaty. (Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump pulled America out of the historical accord.) Whatever you may think of the former Veep, An Inconvenient Sequel, like its predecessor, is powerful and essential viewing.