Infosys appoints K V Kamath as chairman; Shibulal to be CEO

K V Kamath will take over as the head of the country’s second largest software firm when incumbent chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy quits the post on August 21 on turning 65. But Murthy will continue in the company as chairman emeritus for life.
The $6-billion company is also planning to change its name to Infosys Limited from the present Infosys Technologies Limited.

Co-founder S Gopalakrishnan (Kris), now the CEO & managing director, will be the executive co-chairman of the board, a newly created position. S D Shibulal, another co-founder, will assume the post of CEO & MD. All these appointments are with effect from August 21, 2011. The position of chief executive officer (COO), currently being held by Shibulal, will not be filled as of now, the company said.

The board has also decided to fix the retirement age for the chairman at 70, but this will not be applicable to the founding members of the company who will have to retire at 65, if appointed chairman or in any other position.

The board chalked out the succession plan based on the recommendations of the nominations committee under the chairmanship of Prof Jeffrey S Lehman, a board member.

“Vaman (Kamath) is  one of the finest corporate leaders of modern India. Kris has demonstrated high-class performance during testing times for the industry and the company. Vaman, Kris and Shibu will make an ideal team,” said N R Narayana Murthy.

Kamath, who is already on the Board, is the non-executive chairman of the board of directors of ICICI Bank Limited, India's second largest bank. Kamath is a mechanical engineer with an MBA from Ahmedabad. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2008.
“I feel greatly honoured to have been asked to be the chairman of Infosys by the board of directors and accept this responsibility with a deep sense of humility,” said Kamath soon after the announcement on Saturday.

Kris has been serving as the CEO & MD of Infosys since June 22, 2007.  He holds a master’s degree in physics and computer science from Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. 

“Our goal is to strengthen and grow Infosys further while maintaining the trust and confidence reposed in us by all the stakeholders—clients, employees, investors and shareholders, vendor-partners, the government of the land, and society,” Kris said.

Shibulal, currently serving as the chief operating officer of the company, has over three decades of leadership experience in IT services industry.

He has a master’s degree in physics from the University of Kerala and an MS in computer science from the University of Boston.