Leadership Changes in India's IT Industry

The Indian IT sector has witnessed a significant turnover in leadership roles over the past two years. At Wipro, the departure of CEO Thierry Delaporte in April led to the exit of several senior-level executives, particularly those he had recruited. The company appointed Srini Pallia, a 33-year veteran, as the new CEO. Notable leadership changes included the exits of COO Amit Choudhary, CTO Subha Tatavarti, chief delivery officer Ajit Mahale, and regional president Anis Chenchah.

In November, Omkar Nisal became Wipro's new Europe CEO, replacing Pierre Bruno, another Delaporte appointee. Most of the replacements were internal candidates. The sector has also seen numerous high-profile CFO changes within a year, favoring internal promotions. Infosys elevated Jayesh Sanghrajka after Nilanjan Roy's departure, while HCLTech selected long-term employee Shiv Walia following Prateek Aggarwal's exit.

Several executives have moved to competing firms, highlighting India's unenforceable non-compete clauses. Former Wipro CFO Jatin Dalal replaced the retiring Jan Siegmund. Aparna Iyer, who joined Wipro in 2003 and held various senior positions, succeeded Dalal.

Phil Fersht, HFS Research's founder and CEO, noted that Srini Pallia has promoted several Wipro veterans to senior positions, while most Delaporte recruits have departed or are leaving. Wipro is regaining momentum with new client successes as Srini prepares for key market initiatives in 2025.

Pareekh Jain, CEO at Pareekh Jain Consulting, added that many IT service providers have implemented succession planning for senior management roles, ensuring swift internal promotions and maintaining continuity following senior management departures.

New CEOs often bring external recruits, as demonstrated by Tech Mahindra's Mohit Joshi hiring Richard Lobo from Infosys as chief people officer. Similarly, Cognizant appointed Jatin Dalal after Ravi Kumar became CEO. Tech Mahindra saw the departure of former chief strategy officer Jagdish Mitra and Europe business head Vikram Nair. The company made lateral appointments, including Venkatesh SG as SVP and head of financial services from SunTec, where he led the customer success group.