`Tiger’ Tyagarajan replaces Bhasin as Genpact CEO

Genpact Ltd, India's biggest business process outsourcing and technology management company, on Monday announced the appointment of N V 'Tiger' Tyagarajan as president and chief executive effective 17 June.

He will take over from Pramod Bhasin, who has decided to step down, according to a company statement. Bhasin will become non-executive vice chairman of the company, as part of a succession plan put in place two years ago.

"There is no specific incident that triggered my decision to step down. It's a well-worked out plan, which was put in place about two-and-a-half-years back. Early this year, I expressed my intention to the board to step down," Bhasin said. "Succession is needed to bring in fresh blood in any venture and give others a chance."

This won't be Tyagarajan's first run as the company's chief executive. He headed the company between 1999 and 2002. He worked at GE Capital after that until he rejoined Genpact, when it became an independent company in 2005, as executive vice president of sales and business development. Most recently, he was chief operations officer of Genpact.

This move comes in the context of Genpact's $550-million acquisition of Headstrong, an information technology and consulting company, earlier this year.

The BPO firm, which counts Wachovia, Wells Fargo and GE among its top clients, posted a 28 per cent increase in net profit to to $36 million for the quarter ended 31 March.