5 things to know about Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka

Well known figure among the Silicon Valley elite, Sikka is the first external CEO for Infy

IT major Infosys has appointed Vishal Sikka as its CEO and MD.

Here is all that you need to know about the new CEO of India's most talked about IT company:
 

Sikka completed his schooling from Rosary High School, Baroda where his father worked as an officer in Indian Railways.

After his Computer Engineering from MS University, Baroda, Sikka finished his BS in Computer Science from Syracuse University and his doctorate from Stanford University in artificial intelligence.

 

Sikka is a well known figure among the Silicon Valley elite and was the closest to Hasso Plattner, founder of SAP.

Like every successful person, Sikka rose to the top one step at a time. Here are five events to know about Vishal Sikka:

 

1. After completing his education, Sikka worked at Xerox's research Palo Alto Labs, but later ventured out on his own. He started his first company, iBrain, along with his brother, which was later acquired by PatternRX, Inc. His second startup Bodha.com was acquired by Peregrine Systems, where Sikka worked as Vice President for Platform Technologies, post the acquisition.

 

2. Sikka joined SAP in 2002 to head the advanced technology group responsible for strategic innovative projects. By 2007, he was named the first CTO of the company reporting directly to the CEO. He was responsible for all SAP products and innovation.

 

3. A car accident in Costa Rica in 2008, where Sikka was vacationing with family, was a turning point in Sikka's life as well as that of SAP. Though no one was seriously injured in the accident, Sikka wanted to move on in life rather than continue with his job. Over a dinner in the winter of 2008 in Aspen, Sikka tried to explain to SAP's founder Hasso Plattner that he wanted out of the company and work on newer technological areas which were affecting data computation speed. Plattner, in turn challenged Sikka to intellectually renew SAP and gave him a free hand in doing so. Thus, HANA (High Performance Analytic Appliance), one of the fasted selling SAP product, was born, which completely changed the fortunes of SAP.

 

4. Sikka's exit from SAP has shaken the company. A Business Insider article said that Sikka is a victim of power struggle in the company. SAP, a German company, was witnessing power struggle between the prominent members in Germany and those in the US. Sikka was seen as an American Executive in the company and Plattner's man in the company. European board members, customers and big investors were concerned about how SAP was increasing becoming an American company, especially since the current CEO is an American, Bill McDermott.

 

5. Sikka's exit process gathered speed after a German magazine DAS E-3 published a critical article about SAP's internal politics, the German-American power struggle and about how Sikka was directly in competition with the German head and a prospective future CEO. Sikka responded to the article in his personal blog and slammed the article and author, criticising the story as a fabrication of a gossip monger. The blog did not go well with the top brass in Germany and Sikka had to go.

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