New CEO Ashok Vemuri may beef up iGate's BFSI biz

Mid-term software company iGate has announced the appointment of former Infosys head of Americas business Ashok Vemuri as the company’s president and new chief executive officer.

As per an iGate’s statement, Vemuri will join its board of directors, while the interim president and CEO, Gerhard Watzinger, will assume an advisory role to assist Vemuri in taking over.

Sunil Wadhwani, co-founder and co-chairman of iGate’s Board, said, “Vemuri brings a tremendous track record of success and accomplishments working across a range of businesses at Infosys, where he was directly responsible for driving growth for numerous multi-billion dollar businesses. He is a talented and established leader, and the Board has great confidence in his ability to drive iGate to continued growth into the future.”

At the time of the company’s Q1 results, Watzinger had announced that the company would get a new CEO by September.

Vemuri’s departure is third major management exit since N R Narayana Murthy reassumed as chairman of the company two months back.

Vemuri has also managed banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI)-- Infy’s biggest vertical in the past-- served as chairman of Infosys China and been on the Board of Infy’s public services. His exit was described as a big loss at Infosys.

On the flip side, manufacturing and BFSI make up around 50% of iGate’s revenues.

Sources said while Watzinger was brought in temporarily to salvage iGate’s reputation, after the earlier CEO Phaneesh Murthy stepped down following a sexual harassment scandal.

Pratik Gandhi of IDBI Capital said, “As per past experience of a senior leader joining a rival firm, there is no immediate benefit to the company, but rather it is a journey, where the benefits -- in terms of increased deal wins for BFSI and manufacturing should increase over a period of time. Keeping in mind the existing integration challenges with Patni, the trajectory of revenue change, favoured by a continued good macro environment in the US, should take around 12-18 months approximately to yield results.”

Another analyst said last quarter saw a reasonably good closure of deals.

“So Vemuri’s job would be to ensure business continuity with his leadership and experience and instill confidence in the existing sales team to aid in execution and become more competitive in key verticals such as manufacturing and BFSI.”

Vemuri is likely to receive a package of about $3 million (Rs19 crore), in addition to stock options and performance-linked bonuses, sources said. In Infosys, his package was Rs4.91 crore as cash compensation in 2012-13. In comparison, Phaneesh Murthy’s package was around $8.82 million, or Rs45 crore.