When the imposing founder of Indias second largest IT firm,the $6 billion Infosys Technologies Ltd,N R Narayana Murthy steps down from the company this August,another imposing figure K V Kamath,63,the non-executive chairman of ICICI Bank Ltd,will fill his shoes as chairman of the Infosys board of directors. In a succession plan,evolved to kick in when Murthy steps down on August 20 at the age of 65,announced following a board meeting at the companys headquarters here,the current CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan,55,will be co-chairman of the board in an executive position while the COO SD Shibulal,55,will rise to the position of CEO and MD. Both Gopalakrishnan and Shibulal are co-founders of the company. Infosys did not announce a filling of the COO position that will fall vacant but indicated that this decision will be taken at an unspecified date. With no co-founders left in the 30-year-old firm,the COO post is up for grabs among a second rung of young management team members. Filling of three vacancies on the board of directors following the exit of Murthy and resignations of TV Mohandas Pai and another company co-founder K Dinesh will be decided by during the firms annual general meeting on June 11,chairman designate K V Kamath said. The imposing figure of Narayana Murthy will not altogether vanish from the company. The board decided that Murthy will be a chairman emeritus of the company. Though KV Kamath was a part of the three member nomination committee comprising Prof Jeffrey S Lehman and Deepak Satwalekar for the new chairman,he withdrew from the committee when his candidature evolved,Jeffrey Lehman the chairman of the nominations committee said. Infosys has,among other decisions,also amended the retirement age for non-founder members of the board,increasing it from 65 to 70. This was to allow an increase in the span of candidatures for the chairmans post,company officials said. The company will also move to change its name from Infosys Technologies Ltd to Infosys Ltd keeping it in tune with a recasting of a 3.0 version of the company that aims to help customers build tomorrows enterprise, Kris Gopalakrishnan said. The chairman of the nomination committee said,KV Kamaths appointment as chairman is part of a preparation of a model for new leadership in Infosys in the post-Murthy era and as part of the next phase of Infosys. The board processes are well set. Murthy has set in processes that I would have set. I will help in any fine tuning that the co-chairman and CEO would want and make sure best practices are followed, Kamath said hining at his plans after he takes over. Kamath said the executive management of the company comprising the co-chairman and CEO would primarily run the company. He said he had agreed on giving Infosys about 30 days in a year amid his multiple corporate responsibilities. Narayana Murthy said,Vaman (Kamath) is,in my opinion,one of the finest corporate leaders of modern India. He said he has known Kamath for 42 years. Our vision is to be a globally respected company where people of different races,gender and nationality work together in a competitive environment to create value for investors. This is a continuum. In the last 30 years we have come a long way,we still have a long way to go, Narayana Murthy said. He said he would not have to spend time in the company from August 21 but his services would be available if sought.
