IT major Infosys on Saturday announced appointment of Salil S Parekh as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director effective January 2, 2018. Salil S Parekh will replace U B Pravin Rao, who had earlier replaced Vishal Sikka as the interim CEO and Managing Director. Rao will be re-designated as the chief operating officer of the company from Jan. 2.
Parekh has been appointed for a five-year term effective Jan. 2, according to an Infosys filing to exchanges. His departure from Capgemini will be effective on January 1st.
Here is all you need to know about him:
Salil Satish Parekh, previously member of the group management board, was at Capgemini for 25 years most recently as a member of the group executive board. Capgemini is one of the world's largest IT consulting, outsourcing and professional services companies with almost 190,000 employees in over 40 countries, headquartered in Paris, France.
He holds a masters in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, and is a Bachelor of Technology degree holder in Aeronautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay.
After Vishal Sikka, Parekh is the second outsider at Infosys. Sikka had joined Infosys from German software maker SAP SE in 2014, and was the first outsider to be appointed CEO of the Bengaluru-headquartered company.
Parekh has been Head of Cloud Infrastructure Services, Sogeti and Cloud Services and Head of Asia-Pacific, North America and the United Kingdom at Capgemini since October 22, 2016.
Before he became Deputy CEO of Capgemini, he was the CEO Application Services Strategic Business Unit (SBU) of Capgemini that includes North America, United Kingdom, the Financial Services (FS) business unit globally, and local business units in India and Australia.
Salil joined Capgemini in the year 1992, as a result of the acquisition of the consulting division of Ernst and Young and occupied various leadership positions in the Group.
Parekh has also been a partner with Ernst & Young, for 7 years and 10 months, as per his Linkedin profile.
At Capgemini, he was responsible for overseeing a business cluster comprising Application Services and Cloud Infrastructure Services among others.
Parekh has also worked with giants in the financial services industry like Goldman Sachs, J. P. Morgan Chase, and Merrill Lynch.
As per media reports, Parekh’s appointment was made on the recommendation of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee.
Paul Hermelin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Capgemini Group said: "I would like to thank Salil for his involvement in the Capgemini journey. Salil contributed in particular to the development of the Group in India and in the US."
Parekh, who had been instrumental in expanding Capgemini's India team, had once been seen as a potential successor to Capgemini CEO Paul Hermelin.
“We are delighted to have Salil joining as the CEO and MD of Infosys. He has nearly three decades of global experience in the IT services industry. He has a strong track record of executing business turnarounds and managing very successful acquisitions,” said Chairman Infosys' board, Nandan Nilekani in a filing on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Former CEO Vishal Sikka announced a sudden exit in August after a protracted public spat with the company's founding executives, led by Narayana Murthy, over strategy and alleged corporate governance lapses. Sikka, who joined from German software maker SAP SE in 2014, was the first outsider to be appointed CEO of the Bengaluru-headquartered company.
His exit and the prolonged public row led to a reshuffling of the Infosys' board with Nandan Nilekani, a co-founder and former CEO, returning as non-executive chairman.
Nilekani, credited with four-fold growth in Infosys' revenue to $2 billion during his tenure as CEO, had said at the time that cultural fit would be an important criteria for the top job, making internal candidates "very strong contenders".
(With inputs from Reuters)