Ravi Venkatesan has been associated with Infosys for six years.
Six years into his association with Infosys, technocrat Ravi Venkatesan now takes over as the co-chairman of the IT giant at a time when it has hogged the headlines for its protracted and high-decibel public tussle between founders and the board.
Venkatesan, best known for his stint as Microsoft India chairman, is a prominent face in the technology world even as he has held various leadership positions across industries, including banking.
While many believe that Venkatesan has been brought in to broker peace between the founders and the board of Infosys, the man himself believes otherwise. "This is an exciting time for the technology industry and I am delighted to have the opportunity to work more closely with Sesh (Seshasayee) and with Vishal and his leadership team in their transformational journey," Venkatesan said.
People who know him describe him as extremely articulate and an animal lover.
Venkatesan's experience spans firms like Cummins India and Bank of Baroda. The 53-year old executive is also the Chairman of Bank of Baroda. A philanthropist, Venkatesan is an active participant in the start-up world - he is the founder chairman of Social Venture Partners India, a partner at Unitus Seed Fund and a fund advisor at Kalaari Capital.
He also serves on the boards of Rockefeller Foundation, and several other advisory boards, and has authored an acclaimed book 'Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere' published by Harvard Business Review.
As Chairman of Microsoft India (between 2004 and 2011), Venkatesan helped build the entity into Microsoft's second- largest presence in the world. He played a key role in spearheading the software giant's `Project Shiksha', a computer literacy programme which has so far trained over 40 million school children in India. He has served on the boards of Harvard Business School, AB Volvo, Bunge, and Thermax.
Venkatesan has a BS from IIT Bombay, an MS from Purdue University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar.
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