Kamath expected to step down from Infy board

KV Kamath is soon expected to take a call on whether to continue as the Lead Independent Director of Infosys, as he takes charge of the BRICS bank.

Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi had earlier told reporters that the appointment will become effective when he becomes free from his current assignments.

Kamath’s role When asked whether Kamath would step down from his post, an Infosys spokesperson declined to comment on the development. However, sources who are aware of the development said that in all likelihood he would have to step down from the Board of Infosys. Kamath was inducted into the Infosys Board on May 2009 and took over as Non-Executive Chairman in 2011, after founder NR Narayana Murthy retired from the company.

On June 2013, after Murthy came back from retirement as Chairman of Infosys, Kamath stepped down as Chairman and took up the post of Lead Independent Director.

After shepherding the company through difficult times, Kamath played a very crucial role in the succession planning of India’s second-largest software exporter, which culminated in the appointment of Vishal Sikka, the first non-founder to take over the reigns of the company.

This development comes at a time when Infosys said it plans to hit $20 billion in revenues by 2020. “A man of Kamath’s stature will be missed and would be a big void to fill,” said Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO of Headhunters India.

Other directors Currently, there are seven independent directors at Infosys. They are R Seshasayee, Executive Vice-Chairman, Ashok Leyland; Jeffrey Lehman, former President of Cornell University; Carol M Browner, former Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy in the Obama administration; John Etchemendy, Provost of Stanford University; Roopa Kudva, Managing Director of CRISIL; Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD of Biocon; and Ravi Venkatesan, former head of Microsoft India.