Infosys slips over 7% in morning trade as Vishal Sikka resigns as MD and CEO

Vishal Sikka has resigned as the Managing Director and CEO of India’s second largest IT services firm Infosys. He has been appointed executive vice chairman on Friday.

“The board of directors of Infosys Limited has at its meeting today accepted the resignation of Dr Vishal Sikka as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company with immediate effect,” the IT firm said in a BSE filing.

Vishal Sikka’s resignation was accepted on August 18. He posted his resignation letter on his official Twitter account:

The “continuous stream of distractions and disruptions” that became increasingly personal and negative forced Vishal Sikka to quit as the CEO of Infosys. Sikka, who had joined Infosys in August 2014, said these distractions were preventing the management’s ability to accelerate the company's transformation.

While he didn't detail out these “distractions”, it may be noted that some of Infosys founders, including N R Narayana Murthy, have alleged corporate governance lapses at the firm and questioned the high compensation paid to Sikka and severance package extended to certain former executives.

The stand-off between the founders and management has been on for a few quarters now, with both sides making public statements on these issues.

After Vishal Sikka resigned as MD and CEO with immediate effect, the BSE benchmark Sensex fell nearly 208 points and Infosys tanked over 7 per cent in early trade.

At 09:33 hrs Infosys was quoting at ₹960.20, down ₹60.95, or 5.97 percent on the BSE. It touched an intraday high of ₹1,021.50 and an intraday low of ₹958.25, reported Moneycontrol.

Sikka will continue to focus on strategic initiatives, key customer relationships and technology development. Under the leadership of Sikka, Infosys launched new programmes to drive innovation, education, and entrepreneurship on a large scale. Following are some programmes launched by him:

• Zero Distance- It was a programme which was the first of its kind in the industry intended to drive grassroots innovation at a massive scale, through every employee
• Design Thinking training- The largest programme to drive creative confidence and problem-finding in every Infoscion
• Zero Bench- This programme was a bold notion to drive additional value for clients. Dramatically during Sikka's tenure, employee attrition has decreased, particularly among high performers.

After Sikka’s resignation, UB Pravin Rao has been appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. Rao joined Infosys in 1986, and since then has held a number of senior leadership portfolios. He oversees the key functions of global sales, delivery and business enabling functions.

With inputs from PTI