Premji says his son Rishad may succeed him eventually

In a first definite indication of his son’s future entry into the corner office, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji has said his son Rishad Premji may succeed him as the non-executive chairman of the Bangalore-based company.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg in New York, Premji, who with his family controls about 78 per cent of Wipro, said “it would make sense” for Rishad to succeed him eventually. He, however, said in the interview that he had no plans to step down for at least the next 24 months.

An MBA from Harvard Business School with work experiences in global firms like Bain Consulting and GE, Rishad joined Wipro in July 2007 as a business manager in the banking and finance division. At that time, it was widely speculated that this could be a move to make him the successor of Premji, when he retires from the company.

In an earlier interview with Business Standard, Rishad, who at present leads the global strategy of Wipro’s IT services business as a vice-president and chief strategy officer, had said he did not want to be distracted by the “talks” of being the future CEO of the company.

“I am very focused on what I am doing today. I have been in this job for 12 months. I think this is a great time to add value in my capacity as part of the leadership team of Wipro’s IT business. I don’t want to be distracted and think out of that,” Rishad had said in the interview done in November last year. Rishad is in charge of charting future strategy, identifying new business areas and help draw up a vision plan.

Premji’s second son Tariq, who initially worked with Premji in the private investment arm of the company, is learnt to have started his own company in the lifestyle segment. This, however, could not be confirmed from the company.