NR Narayana Murthy 'regrets' quitting Infosys in 2014

Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy has said he regrets his decision to quit as chairman of the company in 2014 and should have listened to the advice of the other co-founders of the country's second-largest software services export company and stayed on.

Murthy, who has had serious differences with the current management headed by Vishal Sikka over corporate governance issues, however, said he did not miss being on the campus every day.

Opening up about his biggest regrets -personal or professional, he recounted that a lot of my founder colleagues told me not to leave Infosys in 2014, to stay a few years. "Generally, I find that I am a very emotional person. A lot of my decisions are based on idealism and probably, I should have listened to them," he told CNBC TV18.

In 2014, 33 years after starting Infosys, Murthy bid farewell to the company he had set up with six other co- founders.

Murthy had the longest run of about 21 years as CEO before passing on the baton to Nandan Nilekani who was succeeded by S Gopalakrishnan. SD Shibulal, another Infosys cofounder, then took over the reins from Gopalakrishnan.

In October 2014, former SAP board member Vishal Sikka took over as CEO as the first non-founder chief of the company.

Murthy, by then, was serving a second stint at Infosys as Chairman. While he was appointed as Chairman Emeritus with effect from October 11, 2014, Murthy turned down the offer.

However, over the last few months, Murthy has been raising his voice against the Infosys management on various issues such as alleged lapses in corporate governance, CEO salary package and severance pay to former employees.

The IT veteran termed the listing of the country's second-largest software services firm on Nasdaq as his biggest success story. "I think sitting on those high stools at Nasdaq when we got listed, I think that was the best. It was a giant leap for Infosys," he said.