CFO exit will have little impact on Infy

There will not be much impact due to the transition as Jayesh Sanghrajka is an old hand. But it looks very sudden. There is transition in management everywhere. There may be problem for Infosys (if such exits continue) as many second-level leaders have left in recent past -- V Balakrishnan, Chairman, Exfinity Ventures, & former CFO, Infosys, tells Bizz Buzz

Sudden Impact

• CFO designate Jayesh Sanghrajka to replace Roy
• Experts anticipate better growth opportunity as the reason
• Infosys, Wipro, & TCS have seen many CXO level movements in 2023

Bengaluru: The resignation of Nilanjan Roy, chief financial officer (CFO) at Infosys, will not have much impact on the operations of the Bengaluru-headquartered company as a company insider with vast experience has been selected as the next CFO.

According to experts in the know, though Roy has been literally number-two leader at Infosys managing multiple functions, the CFO designate Jayesh Sanghrajka will be able to fill his shoes without much disruption.

“There will not be much impact due to the transition as Jayesh Sanghrajka is an old hand. But it looks very sudden. There is transition in management everywhere. There may be problem for Infosys (if such exits continue) as many second-level leaders have left in recent past,” V Balakrishnan, chairman, Exfinity Ventures & former CFO, Infosys, told Bizz Buzz.

In a late evening exchange filing, Infosys informed the market on Monday that its Chief Financial Officer Nilanjan Roy has resigned from his role and will leave the Bengaluru-headquartered IT firm by March 31, 2024.

This has caught the market by surprise as this sudden movement was unexpected. Roy, who joined the company in 2018, has been instrumental in steadying the ship of Infosys during the tumultuous years of pandemic and beyond.

Sanghrajka, who will take over the reins as CFO on April 1, has been handling multiple portfolios within the finance department. He has been with Infosys for the last 18 years.

Though the reasons for the sudden exit of Roy have not been known, sources in the know said that a better opportunity with higher compensation can be the reason.

“There is no word on the exit. The sense is that he could have got a better opportunity with higher compensation. There are many CEO-level changes in the recent past in some companies. It is possible that better offer from such companies may have been the reason,” a source familiar with the Infosys management said.

Recently, Wipro’s then CFO Jatin Dalal quit and joined Cognizant as its CFO, where his compensation has increased by five times to $5 million as compared to Wipro.

Experts in the know said that as demand environment becomes tougher, Indian IT industry may see many such CXO-level changes.

“There is a possibility that such movement at CXO level will increase as the going gets tougher. We have already seen many such movements this year,” said Pareekh Jain, an IT outsourcing advisor & Founder of Pareekh Consulting, said.

So far, this year, Indian IT firms have seen unusual CXO level movement. Infosys has witnessed around 10 top-level exits. Similarly, Wipro has seen a dozen top leaders leaving the company. Not only Infosys and Wipro, even market leader TCS also saw some top executives leaving the company. In a surprise move, Rajesh Gopinathan stepped down from the CEO role this year.