L&T Infotech, the unlisted IT services subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro, has approached two Wipro executives in its search for a new chief executive officer (CEO).The departure of two L&T Infotech chief executives — Vivek Chopra and Mukesh Aghi — in December, 2014 and February, 2015, respectively, has led to the hunt.
The identity of these Wipro executives could not be ascertained, but they belong to the company’s top management team, heading large verticals. The executives have completed their interviews with L&T Infotech, sources added.
L&T Infotech has also approached other top employees at leading companies, sources told FE.
When contacted by FE regarding these developments, L&T Infotech said in an e-mail response, “L&T Infotech does not comment on market speculations.”
It is understood that L&T Infotech is keen on a CEO located out of the US and this could be a stumbling block in getting a top Indian executive to take up this role. L&T Infotech is also said to have approached executives from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Cognizant.
Wipro recently inducted Abid Ali Neemuchwala from TCS as chief operating officer (COO) and elevated two of its senior executives — Bhanumurthy BM and GK Prasanna — as presidents. The other emplyee with that designation is Anand Padmanabhan. Besides, it has around 10 top executives — called chief executives — who oversee specific business verticals.
L&T Infotech, a mid-tier IT services firm, has a history of choosing executives from much larger companies. In the recent past, it had appointed former Infosys executive Chandrashekar Kakal as chief operating officer and also Wipro’s Rajat Mathur, who heads the emerging markets segment.
L&T Infotech, which has a revenue of around $900 million and 20,000 people, plans to list in 2016. It houses a subsidiary L&T Technology Services, which is into IT engineering.