Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) outgoing MD & CEO Rajesh Gopinathan on Friday said his top priority is the transition of leadership responsibilities to his successor, and he looks forward to some “downtime” with his family.

The resignation from the IT major evoked mixed feelings, but the logging out came at the most appropriate time , he added. “It’s an odd day today, but I am happy to announce that after 22 years in TCS, I am stepping down. It has been a fantastic journey for me, 22 years with TCS, 27 with the group, and it’s the period in which I have seen and learned almost everything I know. I enjoyed a lot under the mentorship of Chandra (Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran) and saw him drive this company to become one of the leading, if not the leading IT provider globally,” Gopinathan said in a media briefing.

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“Overall, it’s a day of mixed feelings for me. I am happy where we are, I am also a bit sad as the reality of this step is slowly sinking in…In the last six years, we have done well and we managed to grow to a run rate of $28 billion, and the market has also been rewarding us, while on the employee side, we have been attracting the best talent,” he added.

On Thursday, TCS had announced Gopinathan’s resignation, effective September 15, to pursue other opportunities, and named K Krithivasan as his successor. Gopinathan had taken over TCS’ reins in 2017, and was reappointed the Tata group company’s CEO for a five-year term last year.

Krithivasan has been named the CEO-designate, effective March 16, and MD & CEO from September 15.

Gopinathan will continue with the company till September 15, 2023, to provide transition and support to his successor. “There is no better time than this, and it is also important to do this before the start of the financial year. I couldn’t think of a better time,” he said. He, however, did not reveal his next move and added that he had many ideas in his mind and now that the trigger has been pulled, it’s time to crystallise them.

“First, I have to make sure that the transition happens smoothly and with Krithi (K Krithivasan) being there, I don’t think that is a challenge at all. After that, I want to take some downtime and spend some time with my family, then sit back and think of the many ideas I have,” he said, adding looking back, he would not have done anything differently.

Krithivasan is currently president and global head of the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) vertical. He had joined TCS in 1989 and has held various leadership roles in delivery, customer relationship management, large programme management and sales during his tenure.

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“It’s a continuum and it’s not that as every CEO changes, we come up with a new strategy or a new set of priorities. We have a core set of beliefs and values, focusing on employees, focusing on customers are the most important engines that drive our growth, and as the market situation changes, we recalibrate what we want to do, where we want to focus,” Krithivasan said.

“…We will not make any changes. We will continue to focus on core principles and fine-tune as we go along. There are certain parts of business I know quite well, and I will work with Rajesh to understand what’s happening in rest of TCS,” he added.