Prasad Thrikutam, the global head of strategic sales, marketing and alliances at Infosys, has quit the company, two months before its key annual sales and marketing conference.
Thrikutam is the 12th top executive to leave the company since co-founder NR Narayana Murthy returned to head the software major as its Executive Chairman a year ago. The development comes close to the three-day annual strategy session, ‘Connect’, to be held in Las Vegas where the entire sales team from Infosys as well as alliance partners and customers are to meet. Thrikutam has been anchoring this event for the past two years. The event is usually held at the beginning of the fiscal but, because of budgetary constraints, it was pushed to August this year. A week ago, BG Srinivas, a Board member and a CEO aspirant, quit to move to a Hong Kong-based company. India’s second largest software exporter is currently in the midst of hiring its first non-founder CEO.
UB Pravin Rao, the recently appointed President and Board member, will now manage Thrikutam’s portfolio, according to Infosys officials. Thrikutam, who spent close to two decades in the company, was also elevated to the Infosys Executive Council and was also a Director in the company’s BPO arm. An Infosys spokesperson said in a statement: “Prasad Thrikutam has decided to pursue interests outside of Infosys. We thank him for his contribution to the company..” Thrikutam was one of the star performers in 2012 and, at that time, was global head of energy, utilities and communications. He was later asked to take up a different role (of strategic sales, marketing and alliances), something he was not comfortable with, Infosys insiders said.