Pai to step down from Infosys, wants new leadership

suchithkc

Bangalore, Apr 15 : In a surprise development, T V Mohandas Pai today resigned from Infosys and its Board of Directors, ending a 17-year association with the company, which inducted former Microsoft India Chairman Ravi Venkatesan into the Board.
"T V Mohandas Pai, has decided to relinquish the position of member of the board and has requested the board to relieve him of the responsibilities after the company''s annual general meeting on June 11, 2011," Infosys said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The announcement comes on a day when Infosys reported a lower-than-expected consolidated net profit of Rs 1,818 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2011, a nearly 14 per cent jump from the same period last year.
Pai is the second top executive in Infosys to leave the organisation in two years after Nandan Nilekani, one of its founders, quit to join government to implement the ambitious project that will give identification number to each citizen.
The company also announced that K Dinesh, member of its Board and a co-founder, would retire by rotation at the Annual General Meeting to be held on June 11. Dinesh would not seek reappointment, it said.
N R Narayana Murthy, chief mentor of India''s second largest IT firm, who himself retires in August this year said Pai''s resignation has been accepted.
"Mohan has been an early adopter and key anchor builder of Infosys. We know he is taking the painful decision since he has much bigger projects on the horizon -- nation building," he said in a statement.
52-year-old Pai, who joined Infosys in 1994, said he was demitting office to provide an opportunity to a new set of people to lead the firm and bring it amongst the top three global players.
"I stepped down in 2006 from the CFO position and now I handled this (HR Director). I handled a large portfolio and now I think it''s time for others to come up," he said.
The company statement said Pai has much bigger projects in the horizon -- nation building.
The company Board will meet on April 30 to finalise its leadership succession plans, it said.
"The Board of Directors will meet on April 30, 2011 to finalise plans for the company''s leadership succession, post NR Narayana Murthy''s retirement as Chairman of the Board in August 2011," the filing said. .