Airtel veteran Nilanjan Roy is Infy's new CFO

Nilanjan Roy spent 13 years with Bharti Airtel, prior to which he worked for 15 years with Unilever across their global operations.

India's second largest IT services firm Infosys on Thursday named former Bharti Airtel executive Nilanjan Roy, bottom, left, as its chief financial officer.

In August, M D Ranganath had resigned as the CFO from the company, a surprise move that industry watchers said raised questions about stability at the country's second largest IT services firm.

The company, in a statement, said its board of directors has appointed Nilanjan Roy as the chief financial officer of the company, effective March 1, 2019.

Infosys, in November, said Jayesh Sanghrajka would serve as the interim chief financial officer as the company scouted for a replacement.

Sanghrajka will resume his responsibilities as deputy CFO, effective March 1, 2019.

"We are delighted to announce that Nilanjan will join Infosys as our CFO. He comes to us with extensive and rich global experience.

“We would like to express our deep appreciation to Jayesh Sanghrajka for taking charge as interim CFO and thank him for ably executing this very important responsibility," Infosys CEO and managing director Salil Parekh said.

Roy joins Infosys from Bharti Airtel, where he holds the position of global chief financial officer.

He spent 13 years with Bharti Airtel, prior to which he worked for 15 years with Unilever across their global operations.

Ranganath, fondly known as Ranga, had been working with Infosys for close to two decades and had taken over the CFO role in 2015 after the exit of Rajiv Bansal.

Infosys, at that time, had said Ranganath was leaving Infosys to "pursue professional opportunities in new areas" and would continue as the CFO till November 16.

The board had immediately commenced the search for Ranganath's successor.

Ranga was seen as a stabilising factor especially among investors, given his long innings, including the stormy phase last year.

Infosys had witnessed a protracted stand-off last year between its high-profile founders led by Murthy and the previous management last year over allegations of corporate governance lapses and issues related to severance package doled out to former executives, including Rajiv Bansal.

Another flashpoint was the acquisition of Israeli technology firm Panaya by Infosys under the former CEO Vishal Sikka. Anonymous whistleblower reports flagging some of these issues were also submitted to market regulators in the US and in India.

This tussle led to the sudden resignation of Sikka as CEO in August last year, followed by exit of its then Chairman R. Seshasayee and two other board members.

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani was then brought in as chairman to steer the firm during the turbulent phase and Salil Parekh joined as CEO in January this year.

The new management has been engaging extensively with employees and shareholders to address these issues.

Earlier this year, Infosys also announced that it was selling Panaya.

Infosys has seen a number of senior-level exits including Rajesh Krishnamurthy (former president), Sangita Singh (ex-healthcare business head) and former independent director Ravi Venkatesan.

Photograph: Abhishek N Chinnappa/Reuters