Joint CEOs quit, Kurien takes charge in Wipro re-jig

Management shake-ups seem to be the order of the day in the information technology world. Indian software major Wipro Ltd today announced the appointment of company veteran T K Kurien as the chief executive officer of its global IT business and executive director of the company.

After reporting profit growth rates which lagged rivals Infosys Technologies Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services, the country's third-largest IT firm also announced the resignation of its joint chief executives Girish Paranjpe and Suresh Vaswani, who would step down 1 February.

On Thursday, internet search giant Google had also announced a management re-jig, with co-founder Larry Page taking over as chief executive and managerial responsibilities being re-divided (See:  Larry Page is Google's new CEO, Schmidt exec chairman).

At Apple Inc too, founder and chief executive Steve Jobs announced a leave of absence, giving lieutenant Tim Cook a chance to hold the reins independently. However, both Apple and Google reported fourth-quarter results that were well above Wall Street's estimates.

Kurien is currently chief executive of the company's eco-energy division, a new initiative launched early this fiscal.

Paranjpe and Vaswani have been associated with the company over the last two decades and have been an integral part of the leadership team.