Rajesh Nambiar appointed as chairman, managing director of Cognizant India

Cognizant has announced Rajesh Nambiar has been appointed as the chairman and managing director of its India arm and a member of executive committee with effective November 9.

He joins Cognizant from Ciena, a networking and software company, where he currently serves as Chairman and President of Ciena, India. Nambiar has extensive general management, commercial, and delivery experience includes more than 12 years with IBM and 18 years with Tata Consultancy Services previously. At IBM, Rajesh was the General Manager and Global Leader for IBM’s Application Services Business. He also served on the board of IBM India and as a member of National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) Executive Council while at IBM. 

“We are pleased to welcome Rajesh to Cognizant and our Executive Committee,” said Brian Humphries, CEO, Cognizant, said in a company statement. “In the repositioned and elevated role of the India Chairman and Managing Director, Rajesh will strengthen our brand positioning in India and enhance our relationships with relevant Indian government agencies, chambers of commerce, universities, the media, and key policy-making bodies, including NASSCOM. Rajesh will also serve as the Executive Committee representative of our nearly 200,000 associates in India. We are confident that his extensive industry and leadership experience will provide further momentum to our operations in India, which is a critical hub of Cognizant’s leading-edge delivery capabilities.”

“I'm honoured to be part of Cognizant and look forward to contributing to the company’s growth as a member of the Executive Committee. Cognizant’s technology and delivery capabilities in India provide an immense competitive advantage to the company and its clients,” added Nambiar. “My priority is to build upon Cognizant’s rich legacy of innovation, industry leadership, and client-centric employee culture to help the company engineer modern businesses that improve everyday life.”

Nambiar will be replacing Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, who resigned from his role in July, ending his 23 years of association with the IT services firm.