Infosys Strategic Sales Head Prasad Thrikutam Quits

The list of top executives quitting Infosys grew longer with the exit of Prasad Thrikutam on Thursday.

Mr Thrikutam was in charge of strategic sales, marketing and alliances. He was also head of Infosys, Americas. President Pravin Rao will take up his portfolio, an Infosys spokeswoman said.

(See Where Former Infosys Executives Are Going)

Till recently, Prasad Thrikutam was a member of the Infosys Executive Council and was the global head of Infosys' energy, utilities, communications and services (ECS) industry group, with 19,000 employees and more than $1.4 billion in annual revenues.

(See: Infosys 2nd Worst-Performing Nifty Stock in May as Exits Rise)

Mr Prasad joined Infosys in 1995 as a regional head of business development in the US. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management.

Infosys has lost at least 11 senior managers since executive chairman Narayana Murthy returned to the helm in June last year.

The last big exit was of president and board member B.G. Srinivas, who quit on May 29. Mr Srinivas was widely seen as a frontrunner for the top job among internal candidates after Chief Executive S.D. Shibulal, one of company's seven founders, said in April that he wants to retire by January 2015 at the latest.

(See | Infosys May Pick an Outsider as CEO After Srinivas' Exit: Analysts)

India's second largest IT services exporter Infosys is under pressure to bring in a new chief executive soon to check an exodus of junior staff and reassure investors after a slew of departures at the top.

The company's "prolonged search" for a chief executive officer is creating "stress" among Infosys employees, said V Mohandas Pai, who is a former CFO and human resources head of Infosys.

(See | Nilekani, Return To Infosys. The Clamour Grows)

Infosys has been struggling with lower growth than its peers like TCS and Cognizant Technology Solutions. It has also been hurt by a higher-than-average attrition rate.

Infosys was once a star performer in India's more than $100 billion outsourcing sector, but the uncertainty at the top and its lower growth have dimmed its status as the employer of choice for young IT workers, with staff leaving at an unprecedented pace.

(See | Infosys CEO Selection Process on Track: Murthy)

In a research report published on Thursday, Barclays analysts Bhuvnesh Singh and Hitesh Das said the CEO selection process may lead to "further management churn".

"We believe that the probability of an external candidate may indicate that the company's problems are more deep seated than earlier thought and that an external person is required to bring significant changes within the organization," they wrote. (With Agency Inputs)