Salil S Parekh will be appointed as the new Infosys CEO on January 2, 2018.
Three months after former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka stepped down over allegations of poor corporate governance, the board of Infosys, India's second largest IT services and software firm, appointed Salil S Parekh as chief executive officer and managing director effective January 2, 2018. Mr Parekh will take over from interim CEO U B Pravin Rao on January 2, the company said. Prior to this appointment, Mr Parekh was an executive at consultancy firm Capgemini.
Five things to know about Salil S Parekh's appointment as Infosys CEO and MD:
- He is a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay) in Aeronautical Engineering and holds a Master of Engineering degree in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.
- Salil S Parekh, previously member of the group management board at Capgemini, was at Capgemini for 25 years most recently as a member of the group executive board. He was responsible for overseeing a business cluster comprising Application Services and Cloud Infrastructure Services among others.
- Commenting on the appointment, Nandan Nilekani who was named non-executive chairman following Mr Sikka's exit in August, said that Mr Parekh has a strong track record of executing business turnarounds and managing very successful acquisitions.
- The company was mired in a public spat between founder Narayana Murthy and Mr Sikka over executive remuneration, poor corporate governance and allegations of wrong doing in a $200-million acquisition of Israeli automation technology firm Panaya Ltd in 2015. Mr Sikka resigned on August 18, citing an unending stream of criticism from Mr Murthy.
- Following Mr Parekh's appointment, Mr Rao will step down as the interim CEO and managing director effective January 2, 2018 and will continue as chief operating officer and a whole-time director of the company.
