Infosys' CEO hunt continues: Ashok Vemuri seen as frontrunner

1. Business Standard Infosys' CEO hunt continues: Ashok Vemuri seen as frontrunner Another candidate B G Srinivas is understood to have declined to take the role of CEO

2. Former Infosys executive Ashok Vemuri executive’s post at India’s second-largest software exporter. is said to be the frontrunner for the chief Infosys, which has tasked executive search firm Egon Zehnder with shortlisting candidates for the top job, has met over a dozen executives, but a final decision has yet to be made. Another candidate is B G Srinivas, also a former Infosys executive, who has declined to take the role of CEO according to a person familiar with the development. At present, Vemuri is the CEO of Conduent, a Xerox company, and Srinivas is group managing director of Hong Kong’s PCCW Group. At Infosys, interim CEO & managing director U B Pravin Rao and two presidents – S Ravi Kumar and Mohit Joshi – are said to be the likely internal candidates for the CEO post. Both Vemuri and Srinivas had quit Infosys after founder N R Narayana Murthy overlooked them and hired Vishal Sikka as the first non-founder CEO of the company. In the three years at the helm, Sikka attempted to transform the company into a software-plus-services firm, but it the work was only half done when he quit in August following Murthy's campaign against corporate governance issues at the company. Murthy had questioned the $200-million acquisition of Israeli tech firm Panaya and the subsequent severance payout to former chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal. Despite an independent forensic probe that ruled out any violations, Murthy had insisted on making the findings public. This had led to a public spat between Murthy and the then Infosys chairman R Seshasayee, who later quit along with two independent directors…….read more