2023 Year in Review: top-level management rejig hit India’s IT services firms

The $245-billion Indian IT sector, which is still reeling under global macroeconomic volatility, saw clients slashing their budgets even as companies faced major top-level management changes in 2023.

ETtech looks back at some of the key developments.

Rajesh Gopinathan: Possibly one of the biggest and most abrupt exits of a CEO in recent times, Gopinathan resigned “to pursue other interests” after a 22-year stint with TCS in March this year. Under his tenure, the IT services major’s share rose over 160%.

TCS appointed K Krithivasan as Gopinathan’s successor. Having worked for more than three decades at TCS after joining in 1989, Krithivasan served as the president and global head of the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) vertical of TCS. In terms of revenue contribution, deals, and business, BFSI is one of the largest and most significant verticals for the IT behemoth.

Also read | TCS announces senior leadership changes

Mohit Joshi: Joshi resigned as the president of Infosys after a 22-year stint at the country’s second-largest IT firm. He was appointed managing director and CEO of Tech Mahindra, which saw the longstanding CP Gurnani retire from his post.

Joshi was responsible for financial services, healthcare, and life sciences businesses at Infosys. He also served as the chairman of Edgeverve Systems Ltd, the IT firm’s software and products arm that includes banking software Finacle. He also handled the company’s internal technology and applications portfolio Jatin Dalal: Dalal resigned as the chief financial officer of Wipro and joined rival Cognizant. Wipro has filed a complaint against him for making this move and sought Rs 25 crore in damages for breach of a non-compete clause.

Dalal worked with Wipro for 21 years before tendering his resignation. He has submitted a counter application, seeking the Bengaluru civil court to refer the matter to arbitration, and the next hearing has been scheduled for January 3.

Nilanjan Roy: Earlier this month, Infosys chief financial officer Nilanjan Roy resigned to pursue “personal aspirations”, further deepening the leadership crisis at India’s second-largest software exporter. While Roy’s next move is not clear, Infosys has lost at least eight senior management personnel in the last 12 months, several of them to rivals.

Jayesh Sanghrajka, currently executive vice president and deputy CFO, will replace Roy. Sanghrajka has over 25 years of experience across several finance functions and worked at Infosys for 18 years in two stints.

Puneet Chandok: Chandok, Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) commercial business president for India and South Asia, resigned from his post and was later appointed as the corporate vice president of Microsoft India and South Asia.

Before AWS, Chandok was a partner at McKinsey in India and Asia and also held senior regional and global roles in IBM.