Infosys says CEO search still on; speculations unwarranted

Firm seeks to appoint its first non-founding CEO & MD, as Shibulal is due to retire by Jan 2015

Infosys, India’s second largest software services provider, said on Saturday it was still looking for the next chief executive and managing director and speculations over this were “unwarranted”.

The Bangalore-based company will appoint its first non-founding chief after incumbent S D Shibulal retires in January. According to sources, the hunt that started last month is in its final stages.

“The company’s search for its new chief executive officer and managing director continues and no decision has been taken in this regard as of date,” the company said. “Any other reports or rumours are merely speculations at this point. Once the search is completed, the company will issue a formal notification on the new appointee.”

Executive Chairman N R Narayana Murthy on Friday sent an email to employees saying the selection process was “progressing as planned”.

According to sources, the email was sent soon after some senior managers raised concern that staff and client sentiment was getting hit by speculation on the next chief amid the surprise resignation of key contender B G Srinivas as president and board member.

In April, Infosys said its nominations panel would evaluate internal and external candidates for the job, with the help of corporate executive evaluation specialist Development Dimensions International (DDI) and multinational executive search firm Egon Zehnder.

The panel is headed by K V Kamath,lead independent director on the board, and independent directors Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and R Seshasayee.

According to sources, DDI has assessed at least seven internal candidates and recommended the names of Senior Vice-Presidents (SVP) Sandeep Dadlani (head of consumer packaged goods and logistics), Sanjay Jalona (head of manufacturing and engineering) and Mohit Joshi (head of financial services). President U B Pravin Rao and SVP Manish Tandon (global head of life sciences and services in Americas) are the other two candidates being considered for the top job.

Several top officials of local and global competitors of Infosys have reportedly been approached for the job. This list includes India-born Vishal Sikka, 46, who resigned from the executive board of enterprise software product company SAP earlier this month, sources said.