Mid-tier IT company MindTree has appointed the current Vice-Chairman and one of its founders, Mr Subroto Bagchi, as its new Chairman, replacing Mr Albert Hieronimus, who will continue on the board as Vice-Chairman. Both the appointments are effective April 1, 2012.
The management reshuffle comes about a year after one of the company’s founders Mr Ashok Soota unexpectedly resigned from the company, pushing the mid-tier firm into crisis.
Mr Hieronimus, who was brought in then as non-executive chairman to lead the company out of ‘troubled waters’, said that now that the company has bounced back and was entering the next phase of growth, it was time to bring Mr Bagchi in control.
“It is time now to have a leadership that combined with full-time executive involvement, and as a non-resident of India and a non-executive, I cannot offer this,” Mr Hieronimus said at a press conference today.
Mr Bagchi said that under the new role, it would be his responsibility to represent the interests of shareholders. “The tip of the arrow is the CEO and the job of the board will be to be the tail of the arrow,” he said.
“It is my job to be the sounding board of the CEO and Managing Director and support the leadership team in large strategic issues, customers and investments,” he added.
The board of directors, apart from these changes, has also decided to restructure the board and bring down the number of directors from seven to five, he added.
Post-retirement of three of the company’s directors — Mr N. Vittal, Mr George Scalise and Mr Mark Runacres, there would be one position vacant for director in the future board, and “we are in talks and considerations for the additional director and will announce it in due time,” Mr Hieronimus said.
About 15 months after the company faced hardships with an unsuccessful entry into the cellphones business and also had its Executive Chairman Mr Soota quit, the company has made a strong comeback, with profits growing almost 100 per cent in the third quarter of 2011.