Infosys refuses comment on board member exit

Ashok Vemuri is rumoured to have resigned after being shifted from BFSI, as per industry sources

The possible resignation of Ashok Vemuri, Board member and head of Americas and Global Head of Manufacturing and Engineering Services verticals, did not elicit a response from an Infosys spokesperson, who termed it as rumours.

Industry sources said that Vemuri, who is considered to be one of the potential CEO candidates of the company might have put in his papers. But it could not be confirmed whether Infosys has accepted his resignation or not, as the company may try and persuade him to stay. Sukanya Ghosh, communications and marketing head, told Business Standard the company did not want to comment on rumours. Attempts to get in touch with top management did not elicit a response. CEO S D Shibulal and co-chairman S Gopalakrishnan could not be reached as they were travelling. Chief financial officer V Balakrishnan did not respond to calls or messages on his mobile phone. Calls to Vemuri were not answered.

At least five different sources Business Standard spoke to said Vemuri had indeed resigned, since “he was not happy after the company’s move to shift him from the crucial banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) vertical”. The sources, however, could not confirm whether his papers had been accepted by the board or not.

"He got a raw deal when shifted to the manufacturing vertical, as someone who had been heading the BFSI vertical for so long has developed wide ranging contacts in the verticals he was handling,” said an industry analyst that Business Standard spoke to.

Another industry source said Vemuri’s change of role was complicated. He was asked to be in charge of a region, but the division accounting for the majority of the company’s revenue from that region had been given to someone else. In February this year, Infosys swapped the executive roles of Vemuri and B G Srinivas, both of whom had joined the board of the company as executive directors last year. Vemuri, who continued to be the head of the Americas division, was given the manufacturing and engineering verticals. Srinivas was given charge of BFSI. Shibulal had then said the idea was to give “our leaders a diverse set of experiences over time to fully realise their potential”.

Since Infosys started its leadership changes, it has seen at least two top-level exits, in those of Mohandas Pai and Subhash Dhar. Industry and company sources said Infosys might be heading for another senior-level reshuffle after the company’s lacklustre performance in FY12.

“It appears that the reorganisation at Infosys is an unending story. Most of the clients I spoke to complain that every six months they change people in the team, which affects the long-term engagement with the clients,” Sudin Apte, CEO and principal analyst at advisory firm Offshore Insight had told Business Standard in a recent interview.

Infosys, once the bellwether of the IT industry, has been slowly sliding from its position as competitors have managed to get ahead. Nasdaq-listed Cognizant is expected to go ahead of Infosys by the end of the June quarter. Infosys hit a new low when it said it expected growth of eight to 10 per cent for 2012-13. This was lower than what industry body Nasscom suggested (11-14 per cent) and also Cognizant, which said expected 20 per cent growth for its full year.