Ritesh Idnani, senior vice president and chief operating officer (COO) of Infosys BPO, the business process outsourcing arm of Infosys, has resigned. This is the second high profile exit in Infosys BPO in recent years after Amitabh Chaudhry, the then CEO and MD quit the company in 2009.
On being asked, Swami Swaminathan, CEO & MD of Infosys BPO confirmed the development. “Ritesh is moving out of the company. He made his decision known to us almost a couple of weeks ago. His responsibilities have already been assumed by other leaders in Infosys BPO,” Swaminathan told Business Standard.
While the reason behind Idnani’s decision to leave the company could not be ascertained, it is believed that he might have decided to move on owing to differences with some key people in the top management.
An MBA in finance and marketing from Delhi University, Idnani was considered one of the rising stars in the company ever since he joined Infosys in 1999. After the exit of Chaudhry, Idnani who was then heading the global sales and marketing at Infosys BPO was considered a strong contender for the post of CEO & MD. However, subsequently Swaminathan who was then heading the operations and delivery at Infosys BPO as its COO was elevated to the top post.
Idnani who had worked with Citigroup and PricewaterhouseCoopers prior to joining Infosys, is credited with spearheading the acquisition of McCamish Systems, Infosys’ largest acquisition so far, in 2009. He was also instrumental in the successful acquisition and integration of Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips’ shared services centres in India, Poland and Thailand in 2007.
The company said it would announce the new COO for Infosys BPO at the appropriate time. “At this point in time, we are not naming a COO, but we will do this at the appropriate time,” added Swaminathan.
Infosys BPO today employs about 21,000 people across 18 centres including 12 outside of India. In the fiscal ended March 31, 2012, the company closed with revenues of $495 million on a consolidated basis.