Narayana Murthy stays away from Infosys AGM for second straight year

BENGALURU: For the second straight year, Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy stayed away from company's Annual General Meeting here.

"He (Murthy) is out of country," his close aide told a section of the media here.

Non-Executive Chairman Nandan Nilekani participated in the 37th AGM of Infosys.

Last year too, Murthy and other co-founders including Nilekani, S Gopalakrishanan, S D Shibulal and K Dinesh had stayed away for the first time from the AGM on June 24, 2017.

They remained absent amidst serious differences over governance issues with some of the Board's previous members and its first non-founder Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka.

Infosys faced months of protracted standoff between its founders led by Narayana Murthy and the previous management over issues of corporate governance and compensation to former executives.

The tussle had led to the sudden resignation of the then CEO Vishal Sikka in August last year, followed by Seshasayee and some other directors.

Infosys co-founder Nilekani was then brought in as Chairman, followed by appointment of Salil Parekh as CEO.

In April this year, Infosys announced that it has put Skava and Panaya on sale.

Parekh, 53, joined Infosys on January 2 from Capgemini where he was a member of the Group Executive Board.

In his first letter to company's shareholders ahead of the AGM, Parekh said the company is positioning its capabilities to help navigate its clients next across the different dimensions of the journey.

Interestingly, the AGM also marks the company's 25th year of going public in 1993 when its shares were listed on the BSE.