Wipro’s CEO Thierry Delaporte to earn Rs 62 crore, highest in IT

BENGALURU: Wipro CEO designate Thierry Delaporte could be the costliest executive ever to be hired by an Indian IT services provider. He will be paid between 5.9 and 7.2 million euros annually (Rs 50-62 crore), excluding stock compensation according to Wipro's shareholder notice for its upcoming AGM.
Delaporte joins Wipro from French IT firm Capgemini where he was the COO and a member of its group executive board. As the head of its financial services business, Delaporte has built one of the most formidable business for Capgemini that grew by riding on the acquisitions of Kanbay and IGate. He will take charge as CEO on July 6 and will be based in Paris for a year and then relocate to New York in 2021.
His predecessor Abidali Neemuchwala was paid $4.4 million (Rs 34 crore) in the last fiscal. Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, who was SAP CTO before he came to Infosys, was paid $6.8 million in 2016-17, his last full fiscal as CEO, and that equated to Rs 45 crore going by the exchange rate then.
Delaporte, who was COO at Capgemini prior to this, will receive a basic pay of 1.1-1.4 million euros, expatriate allowance of 428,000-550,000 euros, target variable pay of 1.7-2.5 million euros and a one-time cash award of $3 million. This, however, does not include annual stock grants. The one-time cash bonus is divided into two parts - the first tranche will come on July 31 of this year and the next on July 31, 2021.
He gets an annual stock grant of 1,200,000 ADS (American Depository Share) restricted stock units which comprises 300,000 ADS restricted units (RSUs) and 900,000 ADS Performance Stock Units (PSUs). The ADS RSUs grant of 300,000 units shall vest in 3 instalments. An ADS is the dollar-denominated share of a foreign-based company on the US stock exchange.
As COO of Capgemini, Delaporte was paid about $4.9 million in 2019, which included $1.9 million in fixed and variables and the rest through share grants.
Wipro CFO Jatin Dalal’s annual salary dropped 27% last fiscal to Rs 4.5 crore from Rs 6.1 crore a year earlier.
In his first letter to shareholders as Wipro chairman, Rishad Premji said the company's strategy of driving a digital first approach through four foundational pillars of business transformation, modernisation, connected intelligence and trust have become particularly relevant in today's context.
“Uneasy consumers will precipitate this shift to digital across industries and markets. We expect a profound impact on the established ways of operations. The work needs to be done ‘anywhere by anyone’. Virtual, remote, community-based and distributed work models will become mainstream, empowered by collaborative technologies,” he said.
Wipro's founder chairman Azim Premji will seek a reappointment as non-executive, non-independent director of the company in the upcoming 74th AGM in July. In last year's AGM, the members had approved the continuation of directorship for Premji beyond the age of 75 years.