Cognizant effects major organisational rejig

Chandrasekaran promoted as India vice-chairman, Rajeev Mehta as IT services chief

Nasdaq-listed information technology (IT) services company Cognizant has carried out major organisational changes, elevating second-line leaders to senior positions and giving additional responsibilities to senior executives. The company said the move was aimed at sharpening focus and staying relevant to clients.

As part of the restructuring, the company, for the first time, created the post of chief executive officer for its IT services business. To this post it elevated Rajeev Mehta, who earlier headed the industries and markets business as group chief executive. In his new role, Mehta will be responsible for market-facing activities and the delivery of services across the company.

The company said R Chandrasekaran, group chief executive for technology and operations, had been elevated to the post of executive vice-chairman, Cognizant India, another new position. Both Chandrasekaran and Mehta will report to the company’s Chief Executive Officer Francisco D’Souza.

Cognizant said the company’s goal was to become a ‘tier-I’ player globally. “In order to achieve that goal, we announced a series of organisational changes and associated promotions, intended to sharpen our focus on achieving our objectives across the five key areas.”

In his new role, Chandrasekaran would devote more time to driving client intimacy, strengthening the company’s relationship with industry bodies such as Nasscom and the Confederation of Indian Industry and with the government. He will also enhance the company’s brand equity through public relations in India and work to strengthen broad business relationships and technology, and delivery thought leadership, the company added.

Cognizant has split Chandrasekaran’s earlier responsibilities between three officials — Sumithra Gomatam, Debashis Chatterjee and Allen Shaheen. The three, named executive vice-presidents, would report to Rajeev Mehta. Gomatam will hold the new post of president (industry solutions) and be responsible for all delivery teams within products and resources, insurance, information media and entertainment, and communications & technology.

Chatterjee will hold the new post of president (technology solutions). He will be responsible for all horizontal practices within IT services. Shaheen will continue to head the company’s horizontal practices in Europe and oversee the integration of six companies acquired from German consulting and IT services group C1 Group. In addition, Allen will also head the company’s enterprise application services, quality engineering and assurance teams outside India.

In other promotions announced on Saturday, Krish Venkat, executive vice-president of Cognizant's health care and life sciences practice, was appointed president (health care and life sciences), while Prasad Chintamaneni, who was global head of the company’s financial services practice, was appointed executive vice-president and president (banking and financial services). D K Sinha has been promoted to the post of executive vice-president and the new post of president (client services). Now, Sinha will be based in Europe and manage the global sales, field marketing and intermediary relations teams.

Other senior officials promoted to the post of executive vice-president include Mahesh Venkateswaran, Kalyan Mohan, Srinivasan Veeraraghavachary, Santosh Thomas, Mark Livingston, Gajen Kandiah and Steven Schwartz.

“Progressive companies organise for the future. Structural changes in business and technology, new operating and delivery models, and globalisation of businesses call for new thinking and new structures…We are happy we are doing it at the right time,” the company said.