CISO and head of HR depart as services market tightens
Two senior execs have quit Indian tech services giant Infosys, with head of HR, Richard Lobo, and chief information security officer Vishal Salvi departing in recent days.
The departures follow another recent high visibility exit: former CEO Mohit Joshi announced he was leaving for the same role at rival Tech Mahindra last March.
After seven years as Infosys CISO, Salvi posted on his LinkedIn page this week that he was "happy to share" that he was starting a new position as CEO of Pune-based cyber security firm, Quick Heal.
A post on Quick Heal's website echoed similar positive sentiments and shared that the outgoing CEO, Kailash Katkar, will transition to the role of chairman and managing director.
A 22-year Infosys veteran, Lobo held the role of HR boss for just shy of seven years. He is replaced by 20-year Infosys veteran, former senior vice president and head of the firm'ss leadership institute initiative, Sushanth Tharappan. Lobo is transitioning to a role in the special projects team, according to reports.
Infosys's HR team has had a rocky year. The group head of HR also changed six months ago from Krishnamurthy Shankar to Shaji Mathew.
Like the other Indian IT outsourcers, Infosys faced difficulties during 2022 retaining workers amid high attrition rates, only to worry in 2023 that it may not have enough for its workforce to do.
Infosys admitted to 80 percent utilization rates in its latest earnings report – a figure CFO Nilanjan Roy referred to as "probably one of the lowest I've seen." The workforce shrank by 3,511 across the quarter to stand at 343,234. Net hiring was down even though it took on 51,000 freshers.
Parekh said the services giant was leveraging generative AI capabilities both for clients and for internal purposes. That's been interpreted as a signal that Infosys may be looking for alternative to human staff, who have reportedly been called back into the office for at least three days a week.
The Reg inquired about Infosys's return to office policy and did not receive a reply. We'll update this story if that changes.
Regardless of such efforts, JP Morgan has predicted further tough times for all of India's services giants. It observed that global demand for IT services weakened last month, further increasing "competition for a smaller pie."
The authors of the investment bank's report referred to all of calendar 2023 and financial year 2024 as "a washout."
JP Morgan cut its outlook for Infosys, in particular, by one to two percent over FY24–FY26. ®