Sikka wants to quit with immediate effect
After Nandan Nilekani returned to Infosys as chairman, former CEO Vishal Sikka said he has offered to leave with immediate effect as he saw no reason to continue in the company.
Sikka’s resignation as CEO last week escalated the tensions between the founders and the management of India’s secondlargest software company. He was then named vicechairman.
On Thursday, chairman R Seshasayee quit from his post along with two other directors and Sikka, who also tendered his resignation from the board.
“With Nandan coming in, it wasn’t right for me to hang on and I offered to leave immediately,” Sikka said. He added that strategic direction for the company is straightforward and there will be no abrupt change, given that interim CEO Pravin Rao has been an active part of the execution strategy.
Sikka, however, dodged questions on whether he would be speaking to cofounder N.R. Narayana Murthy, who led a vocal campaign against alleged corporate governance lapses at the firm. Sikka clarified that he had not made any specific remarks against Murthy and that his comments referred to the “noises” that were causing “severe distractions”.
Sikka also refuted reports that he was headed to Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) as the CTO. “It’s not true...I used to be an intern at HP. Someone is keenly trying to put me in a box. The story isn’t true,” he said.
Sikka said it was “Day 1” for him and he was keen on spending more time with his family.