Meet Rajesh Gopinathan, the new TCS CEO
Management change came after incumbent CEO N Chandrasekaran was elevated as chairman of Tata Sons
The management change came after incumbent CEO and MD N Chandrasekaran was elevated as the chairman of Tata Sons, the group that owns majority stake in TCS.
"Rajesh is one of the rare combinations of business and finance," said Chandrasekaran, who will continue to be on the TCS board, introducing his successor. "He has an end to end perspective on the business. I am very confident he will lead TCS to greater heights".
Gopinathan, 46, is an electrical and electronic engineer from REC Trichy (now NIT, Trichy), graduating in 1987 from the same institute of his predecessor, who completed his masters three years before. After joining TCS in 2001, as a pre-sales consultant, Gopinathan was spotted by Chandrasekaran, who as VP of operations to to help him run strategy for TCS.
Later when he restructured the company as chief operating officer, the soft-spoken Gopinathan was shifted to business finance and later as deputy CFO in 2012 and was mentored by former CFO S Mahalingam. Since 2013, he has led the finance operations at TCS, a role that has transformed the soft-spoken, reserved and a person who would choose his words carefully to become outspoken and confident of his role new but also the roadmap and strategy of the $16.5 billion company.
"I assure you that the vision and roadmap are exactly what you heard from me during the last couple of years . The big thing is that we have worked very closely with Chandra and very much on the same page," said Gopinathan in his first comments in his new role. " More importantly there continuity at a leadership level and we are not expecting any major changes in TCS."
Gopinathan takes over the charge of the company at an interesting stage. The industry is at the cusp of a massive technology disruption and TCS is gearing up to take this change head on.
"This is the first technology change where we are part of it from grounds up. Earlier when the web technologies came, we were still trying to prove customers our credibility. Now we have to show our capabilities, earlier our opportunities were limited because of our size. Now the context is different," Gopinathan said in an interview on December 19.
Chief Operating Officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam or NGS, who is the elder brother of Chandrasekaran, has been a TCS veteran of over 34 years, who has worked in almost every role in the company. He is currently the President of TCS Financial Solutions, a strategic business unit of TCS.
"NGS has progressed across the technology, sales, heading Europe, managing financial services business for a long time and responsible for Deutsche Bank or American Express," said Chandrasekaran. " There is extreme level of confidence from customers for his thought leadership and led TCS product business."
Reference - http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/tcs-names-rajesh-gopinathan-as-ceo-n-g-subramaniam-as-coo-117011201366_1.html
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