Never wanted to cause anguish to Narayana Murthy: Infosys Board

NEW DELHI: Infosys, India’s second biggest IT firm, on Friday said that it was unfortunate that various differences of opinion have arisen between Murthy and the Board in the recent past.

“In recent days there has been considerable discussion of the relationship between the Board of Directors of Infosys and N R Narayana Murthy who established the culture and ethos of Infosys, especially its culture of adhering to high corporate governance standards,” Infosys said in press release, which was released after the company’s first board meeting under non-executive chairman Nandan Nilekani on Friday.

“The Board believes it to be unfortunate that various differences of opinion have arisen between Mr. Murthy and the Board in the recent past. The Board wishes to express that it was not its intention to cause Mr. Murthy or any other affected person any personal distress or anguish while stating its point of view,” the release added.

In an interaction with the media persons after the board meet, Nilekani said he will personally look into entire corporate governance allegations.

On the future course of the company, he said Infosys has a very compact and coherent board to ensure that the goals are achieved.

When asked who approached him to first to take over as non executive chairman, Nilekani said he will let that be the stuff for a novel.

The Board in the meeting also approved the appointment of the executive recruitment firm Egon Zehnder to work with its Nominations and Remunerations Committee to review and identify the right candidate to be the company’s next CEO and MD.

It has also tasked its Committee of Directors to work with the CEO and management to review and refresh the Company’s strategy by October.


"Additionally, the Nominations and Remunerations Committee will deliberate on the long term governance structure of the Board and present its recommendations at the meeting of the Board in October," the release added.

The Board also announced that D N Prahlad was appointed as the Chairman of Edgeverve Limited with immediate effect.