Becky Schmitt to be new chief people officer at Cognizant

Mumbai: CEO of New Jersey based Cognizant, Brian Humphries on Friday announced in an internal email that the company's Chief People Officer (CPO) James Lennox would be retiring and will be replaced by Becky Schmitt, currently senior vice president and CPO at Sam’s Club, a $59 billion division of Walmart, as its executive vice president (EVP) and CPO. Schmitt will be joining the company on February 1, 2020.

Lennox had been with the company for the last 16 years as EVP, and member of the Executive Committee.

Humpries said in the mail, "To succeed Jim, I am pleased to announce that we have hired Becky Schmitt as our new EVP and Chief People Officer. Becky joins the Executive Committee, reporting to me, and will be based in New York City. She brings 24 years of experience in developing talent and designing and delivering modern, market-leading HR strategies globally," he said.


Cognizant has said it will lay off 13,000 employees in the coming months out of which 5,000 would be reskilled to be assigned into new roles.