Infosys rejigs top management

Infosys has rejigged its top rung, following a major restructuring of the IT services company's business that began with the return of founder Narayana Murthy as active chairman, with new contenders for the post of CEO emerging when incumbent S D Shibulal retires.

Under the restructuring Chandrashekar Kakal, the global head of business IT services (BITS), has been given additional responsibility of overseeing the consulting and systems integration (CSI) business.

V Balakrishnan, who heads Infosys BPO, will now also oversee the division catering to companies in the utilities and resources sectors in North America.

Balakrishnan is the former CFO and now head of the BPO and India businesses, and chairman of Lodestone, the Switzerland-based consulting company that Infosys acquired last year.

The scale of the responsibility places Kakal in a position to vie for the CEO's post with V Balakrishnan and B G Srinivas once S D Shibulal retires.

B G Srinivas is the head of Europe and global head of the financial services and insurance unit, the company's biggest industry vertical.

BITS contributes 61 per cent of Infosys's overall revenue, and consulting and systems integration contributes 33.6 per cent. Kakal, will now preside over 95 per cent of the company's $7-billion revenue.

Stephen Pratt, the head of CSI, is expected to report to Kakal.

The restructuring at Infosys saw the elevation of the head of the life sciences vertical Dheeshjith V G as the head of a newly created unit called Growth Markets Unit, which combines the operations of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Middle East, South East Asia, France and Germany.

France and Germany are Infosys's big focus markets in Europe, which were previously under B G Srinivas.

While Srinivas's role appears to have been squeezed, it could not be confirmed if Dheeshjith continues to lead the life sciences vertical, which reports to Pravin Rao, the head of retail, consumer packaged goods, logistics and life sciences.

Pravin Rao, meanwhile, has the additional responsibility of the Infosys Leadership Institute. Matthew Barney headed the institute till he quit the company in March.

Prior to taking on the life sciences role, Dheeshjith was head of what Infosys then called new markets and services.

Kakal, who joined Infosys in 1999, is responsible, in his BITS role, for application development, maintenance, testing, and infrastructure management services worldwide. He oversees 60,000 employees serving clients across all industry verticals from a global network of delivery centres.

Narayana Murthy, who is being assisted by his son and executive assistant Rohan Murty, is on a mission to build a "desirable" Infosys within three years.