JOIN USIndicating how personally painful the departure has been, he said separation from Infosys was like a daughter leaving her parent’s home after marriage. However, as parents will be around to help when the daughter needs them, he will always be available to advise the company.
The iconic entrepreneur will exit from the company on August 20, when he turns 65, making way for well known banker K V Kamath. Murthy will continue as the chairman emeritus after retirement though without any responsibilities. Presiding over his last annual general body meeting, addressing around 1,000 Infy shareholders, Murthy said, “I have been the number one actor in every major decision in the company so far and I have rejoiced every significant milestone of the company.”
Murthy started Infosys in 1981 with five close friends and Rs 10,000 and transformed it into a $6 billion exporter over the next three decades.
In the course of his farewell speech, Murthy received standing ovation several times from the shareholders. Perhaps humbled by the acclaim, Murthy described himself as an average guy with “many below-average attributes.”
“As I close, I thank god, this country, this world, family, relatives and friends for helping me—an average person with many below-average attributes—to add whatever little value I have to this country and to the world,” he said. Moved by his speech, a shareholder described Murthy as an embodiment of high standards of ethics in the Indian corporate world. A few shareholders broke into a song in Murthy’s honour and offered him small gifts as a token of their love.
Murthy’s wife Sudha, son Rohan and daughter-in-law Lakshmi were present to witness him bidding goodbye to the shareholders. Rohan and Lakshmi, who got married just last week in Chennai, are incidentally hosting a reception on Sunday in Bangalore. Murthy may have just bid adieu to a “daughter”, but he has reasons to cheer as a daughter-in-law is stepping into his life.