Seshasayee likely to be interim chairman while search for Kamath’s successor continues

Infosys is all set to get a new Chairman in place of KV Kamath, who is taking over the new role as president of BRICS Bank.

On the condition of anonymity, two people familiar with the development said that while Infosys would evaluate external and internal candidates to replace Kamath, it was expected that the conglomerate would name board member R Seshasayee as interim non-executive chairman.

They added that name of the successor would be finalised within two to three weeks.

Economic Times first reported that Infosys had begun hunting for its next chairman and may appoint either Seshasayee, executive vice chairman at Ashok Leyland, or former Microsoft India chairman Ravi Venkatesan as interim chairman to oversee the transition.

Seshasayee, who started his career with Hindustan Lever in 1971 and joined Ashok Leyland in 1976, joined Infosys' board in 2011. He became executive director of Ashok Leyland in 1983 and managing director in 1998. He has also been the chairman of IndusInd Bank since 2007.

"Seshasayee is the most likely candidate to be selected as interim non-executive chairman, given his experience and the fact that he is among the senior-most people on the board," one of the sources told ET.

The person added that it was likely that Infosys would opt for an interim non-executive chairman for now. “Ideally the company would like to have a chairman in place before the AGM (on June 22)," this person said.

Infosys' nominations committee, which identifies and evaluates candidates for various director positions, has the authority to identify and evaluate candidates to replace Kamath.

Besides Kamath, the committee includes board veteran Jeffrey Sean Lehman, Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Seshasayee. Technically, a member of the nominations committee can be considered for the position of chairman, the sources said.

Sources told the financial daily that chief executive Vishal Sikka along with Kamath will also explore appointing an external candidate as the next chairman.

"Infosys ideally wants the next chairman to have a profile similar to founder NR Narayana Murthy or Kamath. That person could come either from within the board or outside Infosys," the second source told ET.

Kamath helped ICICI Bank become a savvy, next-generation lender. He first replaced Murthy as Infosys' chairman in August 2011 and played a vital role in succession planning at the company.

"Infosys needs (a chairman) with experience in institution building. Right now the company is undergoing a serious transition and a lot of changes are taking place under the new CEO. So Infosys needs to pick someone who can be a good sounding board to Sikka," Kavil Ramachandran, executive director, Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise at the Indian School of Business, told ET.

Ramachandran said it should ideally be someone who Sikka respects and will not be seen a roadblock and also who knows the company well and values the ethos of the founders.

During past five years, Infosys’ chairmanship changed as many as four times. Following two lacklustre years under co-founder SD Shibulal, the company's board brought back Murthy as executive chairman in June 2013 and Kamath moved out of his non-executive role.

After the company appointed Sikka as its first non-founder CEO in August 2014, Murthy stepped down from his executive chairman role and Kamath took over again.

(Image: Indiatimes)