Infosys Limited

Infosys Technologies, India’s second largest software company, on Saturday named veteran banker and seasoned business transformation manager K V Kamath as its new chairman. Kamath, 63, who is currently a member of the Infosys board of directors, will succeed the company’s founder N R Narayana Murthy on August 21. The nominations committee of the company, which is facing one of the toughest times in its three-decades of existence, also named current chief operating officer S D Shibulal as CEO and MD, while the incumbent CEO, S Gopalakrishnan, was elevated to the post of executive cochairman. Murthy, who turns 65 in August, will become the chairman emeritus, a non-executive position. Murthy, along with six fellow software engineers, established Infosys with about $250 in 1981. In the last 30 years, the team has made it one of the world’s most respected names in the software outsourcing sector, with an annual turnover of about $6.2 billion. Kamath, the chairman-elect, is also the non-executive chairman of ICICI Bank and is a renowned name in the corporate world. Pleased with his elevation to the top post at Infosys board, Kamath said he felt “greatly honoured” and added that he would accept “this responsibility with a deep sense of humility”. The management changes come after Infosys missed its earnings estimates for the third time in four quarters, unusual for a company known for promising less and achieving more. In its April 15 press conference, the infotech giant also forecast the lowest profit margin since 2003. At the post-announcement conference, S D Shibulal said the company was planning to build a next generation global services and consulting firm and would focus on strengthening client relationships. Hailing Shibulal, Murthy said the two were known to each other from pre-Infosys days, and as COO of the company he always exceeded the expectations of the board. On Saturday evening, the company also announced that it would drop the word ‘Technologies’ from its name and will be renamed Infosys Limited. “As we are a broad ranged service provider, we have decided to rename the company, subject to all clearances. It is also part of our broad Infosys 3.0 vision,” said CEO S Gopalakrishnan. Head of the nominations committee, Jeff Sean Lehman, who worked with the Infosys board to finalize the new management structure, said the changes reflected continuity.