Lakshmi Narayanan to move out of Cognizant board

Cognizant Technology Solutions Vice-Chairman Lakshmi Narayanan, who is also a co-founder of the company, will leave the company’s board.
 
Narayanan served as a board member since 2003. He is focusing on education and entrepreneurship and is involved in industry initiatives.
 
The company on Friday announced Narayanan would not seek re-election at the company's 2017 annual meeting, along with another board member Thomas Wendel.
 

Narayanan was elected to the company's board in December 2003 and was chief executive officer (CEO) from December 2003 to December 2006, and took over as vice-chairman when Francisco D’Souza became CEO. He served as the company's president from 1998 to 2006. Narayanan had joined the Indian subsidiary of Cognizant as chief technology officer in 1994.

 
He also serves on the board of TVS Capital Funds Ltd, and has been performing a leading role in the ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu, a not-for-profit training and research institution established as a public-private partnership. He holds a management degree from the Indian Institute of Science.
 
Cognizant Chairman John Klein said, “On behalf of the board and our entire leadership team, I’d like to thank both Lakshmi and Tom (Thomas) for their many years of service and strategic counsel as members of our board and for their role in helping to make Cognizant the leader it is today.”

 
The company also announced the appointment of Venture Capital investor Betsy S Atkins and former GE Healthcare Chief Executive Officer John M Dineen as independent directors, with effect from April 1.
 
Atkins, 63, has been CEO of venture capital firm Baja LLC, a company she founded, and was chairman and CEO of Clear Standards, Inc, a provider of energy management and sustainability software and solutions.
 
Dineen, 53, has held a number of executive roles at General Electric apart from being CEO at GE Healthcare.