HCL Technologies' Euorpe head exits

Industry source in the know said Sawhney would leave the company towards the end of this month

Rajeev Sawhney heading the Europe operations of India’s fifth largest IT services provider HCL Technologies has resigned from his position.

Sawhney who was global head aerospace defense, energy & utilities and government verticals president, has been instrumental in setting up the company’s Europe strategy and presence.

Industry source in the know said that Sawhney will leave the company towards the end of this month and will decide his next move only in March.

When contacted the company, a spokesperson said: “Rajeev was head of Public Services in Europe for quite some time now. The Europe business is at a mature state and more aligned to vertical and horizontal offerings in the region. For Europe as a geography, Rajeev was playing an administrative role.” Repeated attempts made to get in touch with Swahney failed.

The move is significant as Sawhney has been with HCL for the last 28 years and is among the top management that has worked closely with promoter and founder Shiv Nadar. He was also among the few handful of people who was instrumental in the concept of hiring local people when setting up operations in the regions of Europe.

In this role, Sawhney was responsible for overseeing the strategic direction of HCL to deliver transformational outsourcing and IT enabled services to organisations across Europe. For HCL Tech Europe contribution to its revenue for the year 2011 was 27.3 per cent, about $1 billion.
 
Prior to becoming managing director of HCL Europe, he worked as a Business Head for HCL-Hewlett Packard Limited, HCL's joint venture with Hewlett Packard, where he managed HCL IT Hardware (India's largest selling PC brand).