In big blow to Infosys, director Balakrishnan quits

mangaloretoday.com

Bangalore, Dec 20: In a big setback to Infosys, board member V Balakrishnan has resigned from the company - the eighth top level exit the IT major has seen since Narayana Murthy returned as chairman in June this year. This is also the second big exit Infosys has seen in the last 24 hours.

 

Mr Balakrishnan, who had joined Infosys in 1991, was considered by some as the next chief executive of India’s second largest outsourcer after current CEO SD Shibulal retires in 2015.

Mr Balakrishnan headed Infosys BPO, Finacle and India Business Unit. He was also the chairman of Lodestone, a consulting company Infosys acquired in September 2012. Mr Balakrishnan had also served as the firm’s chief financial officer earlier.

"I enjoyed every moment of my stint at Infosys and it was a great learning experience. While my heart will always be with Infosys my mind wants to do something beyond Infosys," Mr Balakrishnan said.

There was some speculation about Mr Balakrishnan’s exit after he sold 1 lakh company shares in the open market, held by his two daughters, in November. The sale fetched him over Rs. 33 crore.

Infosys chairman NR Narayana Murthy said, "Bala has been an early adopter and a keen anchor builder of Infosys. It is difficult to imagine Infosys without Bala’s passion, commitment and intellect."

CEO SD Shibulal said, "Bala during his two decades of association with Infosys, has played a pivotal role in building the finance function and has been a key driver behind all our achievements in areas of investor relations and corporate governance."

Mr Balakrishnan’s resignation is effective December 31, 2013.

Infosys has been witnessing an exodus of its senior-level executives in the past few months. Only yesterday, Subrahmanyam Goparaju, senior vice president and a member of the executive council that frames business strategy had resigned.

Last month, Stephen R Pratt the firm’s head of utilities and resources for North America had put in his papers.

In September, Infosys head of BPO sales in Australia Kartik Jayaraman and BPO head Latin America Humberto Andrade had quit the company.

Ashok Vemuri who was heading the company’s operations in the Americas put in his papers in August. Infosys vice president and financial services head for the Americas Sudhir Chaturvedi quit in the same month.

In July, global sales head Basab Pradhan had announced his decision to leave Infosys.

The exits come amidst organisational restructuring that Mr Murthy is overseeing after returning to revive the sagging fortunes of the company in June.