It's been more than four decades since Narayana Murthy, along with six other people, co-founded IT giant?Infosys?in 1981. And today, Infosys?is the second largest IT firm in India with a?market cap of over $6 trillion, only behind TCS, which has more than double the market cap ($12.85 trillion).
Infosys is currently?led by its CEO and MD, Salil Parekh, who has been serving in that position since 2018. But are you aware of the previous CEOs who have headed Infosys in its four-decade journey? Till date,?Infosys?has been headed by seven CEOs across different periods of its 42-year history. Read on as we list all seven of them.
Name | Period |
1.Narayana Murthy | 1981 to March 2002 |
2.Nandan Nilekani | March 2002 to April 2007 |
3.Kris Gopalakrishnan? ?? | April 2007 to August 2011 |
4.S. D. Shibulal | August 2011 to July 2014 |
5.Vishal Sikka | August 2014 to August 2017 |
6.UB Pravin Rao | August 2017 to December 2017 |
7.Salil Parekh | January 2018 onwards |
Also Read:?Infosys?Was The First Indian Company To Be Listed On US Stock Exchange
From 1981 to March 2022, Murthy was at the helm of Infosys for 21 years. As per ET report, it was under his leadership as the CEO during which Infosys was transformed into a multibillion dollar software and services company, paving way for the outsourcing revolution, which made India the world¡¯s back office.
Also Read;?Co-Founder Narayana Murthy On Why He Started?Infosys
One of Infosys' seven co-founders, Nandan Nilekani served as its CEO for the next five years after Narayana Murthy stepped down in 2002. During his tenure, Infosys¡¯ top line grew six fold to $3 billion, as per the report. Nilekani left Infosys in 2009 to lead India¡¯s unique identification project, Aadhaar, at the request of the then PM Manmohan Singh.?
He was the Founding Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in the rank of a Cabinet Minister from 2009- 2014.?As fate would have it, Nilekani made a surprise re-entry as the non-executive chairman of Infosys in 2017.?Born in Bengaluru, Nilekani received his Bachelor¡¯s degree from IIT, Bombay.
After Nilekani, his position as CEO was taken over by his colleague and Infosys co-founder S Gopalakrishnan in 2007. Gopalakrishnan headed several technical positions within Infosys till 2011.?Senapathy ¡®Kris¡¯ Gopalakrishnan served as the Vice Chairman of Infosys from 2011 to 2014, and as its CEO and MD from 2007 to 2011.??
He holds master¡¯s degrees in physics and computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
S.D. Shibulal was another co-founder who held the position of CEO at Infosys. He took over from his colleague S Gopalakrishnan in 2011 and ran operations as CEO till 2014.??Prior to becoming Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Shibu served as Chief Operating Officer from 2007 - 2011.?He holds a master¡¯s degree in computer science from Boston University, US, and a master¡¯s degree in physics from the University of Kerala, India.
Vishal Sikka joined Infosys in 2014 to help transform the company during a time of significant change in the services industry.?But a slew of controversies around an acquisition by Sikka forced him to quit on August 24, 2017, as per ET report.?Sikka received his BS in Computer Science from Syracuse University. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University.
Rao?was appointed interim CEO for four months while the hunt for the next CEO after Sikka's resignation was on. He took over the CEO role from August to December 2017.?Rao had joined Infosys in 1985 and was handpicked by Murthy to be member of Infosys board as well as become COO (chief operating officer) in June 2014.?He retired from Infosys as COO in 2021.??
Salil Parekh is the current CEO of Infosys, a role he has been serving since January 2018. Earlier, Salil was a member of the Group Executive Board at Capgemini, where he held several leadership positions for 25 years. In May last year,?the Infosys board reappointed Salil Parekh as CEO and MD for a five-year period effective July 1.
Salil holds Master of Engineering degrees in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
Also Read:?List?Of?Tata?Group Chairmen
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