Infosys coup: NRN’S men make Nilekani chairman

NEW DELHI/ BENGALURU: Succumbing to pressure from its co- founders and a clutch of investors, Infosys on Thursday named former CEO and Aadhaar-architect Nandan Nilekani as its new chairman, replacing R Seshasayee. Ravi Venkatesan also resigned as co-chairman but will continue as an independent director.

Vishal Sikka, who quit last week as CEO but was made vice-chairman till his successor was appointed, also quit the board with immediate effect, the company said in a statement after its board meeting. The board shake-up meets a key demand of the founder group led by N R Narayana Murthy, who had demanded a clean-up at the country’s second largest software services firm.

Two independent directors — Jeffery S Lehman and John Etchemendy — too resigned from the Infosys board with immediate effect. The crisis had been brewing at Infosys since Sikka abruptly resigned last week, blaming founders for slander.

Earlier, a group of people claiming to be former Infosys employees, had written to the company’s Board expressing “disappointment” and “anguish” at the manner in which it responded to company founder Narayana Murthy following the sudden resignation of Vishal Sikka as CEO. The former employees, most of them shareholders, asked the Board to address the issues raised by Murthy with facts, and immediately withdraw the statement released which “unfairly and unjustifiably” blames him for the current crisis.

“We, a group of ex-infoscions want to express our deep disappointment and anguish at the manner in which the Board has responded to Mr Murthy in the form of a letter last week to stock exchanges,” around 80 former Infosys employees said in an e-mail.