BENGALURU: The IT industry has experienced significant leadership changes over the past two years.
At Wipro, CEO Thierry Delaporte’s exit in April led to multiple senior-level departures, particularly among those he recruited. The company appointed Srini Pallia, a 33-year company veteran, as the new CEO. Considerable leadership changes in the firm included the exits of COO Amit Choudhary, CTO Subha Tatavarti, chief delivery officer Ajit Mahale, and regional president Anis Chenchah. In Nov, Omkar Nisal became Wipro’s new Europe CEO, replacing Pierre Bruno, a Delaporte appointee. Most replacements were internal candidates.
The Indian IT sector has experienced numerous high-profile CFO changes within a year which have favoured internal promotions. Infosys elevated Jayesh Sanghrajka after Nilanjan Roy’s departure. HCLTech selected long-term employee Shiv Walia following Prateek Aggarwal’s exit. Additional CFO changes included Vinit Teredesai’s move from LTIMindtree to Persistent Systems, with Vipul Chandra from Larsen & Toubro taking his place. Mphasis welcomed Aravind Viswanathan from Tanla Platforms, whilst Coforge appointed Saurabh Goel.
Several executives joined competing firms, highlighting India’s unenforceable non-compete clauses. Former Wipro CFO Jatin Dalal replaced the retiring Jan Siegmund. Aparna Iyer, who joined Wipro in 2003 and held various senior positions, succeeded Dalal.
Phil Fersht, HFS Research’s founder and chief executive officer, said: “Srini has promoted several Wipro veterans to senior positions, whilst most Delaporte recruits have departed or are leaving. Wipro is regaining momentum with new client successes as Srini prepares for key market initiatives in 2025.”
“Many IT service providers have implemented succession planning for senior management roles, including EVP and SVP levels. This ensures swift internal promotions maintaining continuity following senior management departures,” Pareekh Jain, CEO at Pareekh Jain Consulting, said.
New CEOs often bring external recruits, as demonstrated by Tech Mahindra’s Mohit Joshi hiring Richard Lobo from Infosys as chief people officer. Similarly, Cognizant appointed Jatin Dalal after Ravi Kumar became CEO.
Tech Mahindra saw the departure of former chief strategy officer Jagdish Mitra and Europe business head Vikram Nair. The company made lateral appointments, including Venkatesh SG as SVP and head of financial services from SunTec, where he led the customer success group.