Cognizant appoints Vodafone Executive Brian Humphries as CEO

NEW DELHI: Cognizant for the first time has picked an outsider, Brian Humphries, as its new CEO. Humphries will replace Francisco D'Souza, who has been with the firm since 2007.

Cognizant president Rajeev Mehta will step down on April 1, ending speculation that the firm would go for an insider to lead the technology company.

He is currently the CEO of Vodafone Business. Humphries appointments will be effective from April 1, 2019.


Humphries joined Vodafone from Dell where he most recently held the position of President and Chief Operating Officer of its Infrastructure Solutions Group, based in Boston and Geneva. Previously, he was President of Dell's Global Enterprise Solutions, a group with approximately $15 billion in revenue, and before that he was Vice President and General Manager, EMEA Enterprise Solutions.

Before joining Dell, Humphries was with Hewlett-Packard where his roles included Senior Vice President, Emerging Markets; Senior Vice President, Strategy and Corporate Development; and Chief of Staff to the Chairman and Chief Executive. He also served as Chief Financial Officer of HP Services. The early part of his career was spent with Compaq and Digital Equipment Corporation.