A sudden change of top bosses at HCL, C Vijaykumar takes charge

Vijaykumar's predecessor Gupta would have under normal circumstances left the CEO's position in Dec 2016

For a company that works quietly, calmly and rarely does anything out of place, the last 24 hours have been quite racy for HCL Technologies.

According to sources, the decision to make C Vijayakumar the President and Chief Executive Officer of the company, with immediate effect, was taken just hours before the company announced its second quarter FY 17 results.

The sources said that the decision was so sudden that most of the senior management was unaware of the developments till early Friday morning.

Vijaykumar's predecessor Anant Gupta would have under normal circumstances left the CEO's position in December 2016.

The decision was taken during series of meetings of the Boards of Directors in the last 48 hours, the sources added.

Gupta who was made the CEO in January 2013 asked the board to relieve him of his duties. He, according to company insiders, plans to start his own tech company.

At HCL Technologies, ideally a six-month transition time is given to the incumbent CEO, who for the while holds the position of COO before he takes over. 

In Vijaykumar's case, he got just four months.

"What we know is that in July 2016, Vijaykumar was announced as the next CEO of the company. And Gupta as we know was supposed to hand over the reigns in December. But this was a sudden decision and we came to know about it after the board meeting in the morning itself. Chairman Shiv Nadar and the board members took the decision to accept Gupta's resignation," said a company insider.

The decision came as a surprise to everyone in the company as till Thursday night all the media interviews planned after the results announcement were with Gupta and not Vijaykumar.

When Gupta took over from Vineet Nayyar, the announcement was made in July 2012 and Gupta was made the COO for the company for six months before the final transition.

The company, however, maintains that it was a pre-decided move.