Infosys CEO Shibulal wants to quit before term ends

Infosys, India's second largest outsourcer, has started looking for a new leader after incumbent chief executive officer and managing director SD Shibulal expressed his desire to retire from the company before his superannuation next year. Mr Shibulal is one of the seven Infosys founders.

"Mr Shibulal has expressed his desire to retire either on the date of the last board meeting before his superannuation - January 9, 2015 or when his successor is ready to assume office, whichever date is earlier," Infosys said in a statement.

KV Kamath, lead independent director at Infosys told NDTV that this is a planned transition and the nominations committee is likely to take 6-8 months to find a successor to Mr Shibulal.

Nine high-ranking executives have quit Infosys since its co-founder NR Narayana Murthy returned from retirement in June 2013. The spate of exits over the last 10 months has often been linked to the battle for the chief executive's chair. Infosys is likely to get a non-founder CEO for the first time after Mr Shibulal retires.

Asked about the senior-level resignations at Infosys, Mr Kamath said that the company is not seeing any difficulty in filling positions which are left open.

Infosys said it is open to an internal candidate or an outsider to head the company. Infosys' nominations committee, entrusted with selecting a new CEO, will short list and evaluate internal candidates with the assistance of a corporate executive evaluations company. The board has also appointed Egon Zehnder, an executive search firm, to assist the committee in identifying external candidates, Infosys said.

Recently elevated executives Pravin Rao and B.G. Srinivas are seen as frontrunners to head Infosys as far as internal candidates are concerned, analysts say. Both of them are designated as president and are members of Infosys board.

The announcement comes three days before Infosys' March quarter earnings announcement on Tuesday. Infosys shares closed 1 per cent higher at Rs 3,235.15 on the National Stock Exchange, but underperformed the broader CNX IT benchmark, which closed with 1.45 per cent gains. (Track stock)