Mphasis playing host to a high-stakes game of executive musical chairs

Blackstone-backed mid-tier IT services company Mphasis is experiencing an exodus of senior executives, far more than that listed in a lawsuit against rival Coforge for talent poaching, people with knowledge of the matter told ET.

More than a dozen senior executives at associate vice-president and higher levels have quit Mphasis since 2025, joining rivals such as Coforge and Tenarai (previously known as Infogain). President Elango R quit in December 2025 and senior VP Jayaprakash Bandu left in January to start up.

Vassilis Constantopoulos, senior VP of the Technology, Media and Telecom vertical that contributes 18% to Mphasis’ revenue, has also put in his papers and will leave at the end of May, said two people.

Constantopoulos did not respond to ET’s request for comment sent via professional networking site Linkedin.

“The executives who are leaving are high performers at Mphasis. It is not as though this is a regular shedding of executives who don’t perform,” a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Two of the executives who quit, Sudeep Mahendru and Jayaprakash Bandu, had each received a Tesla car, which Mphasis gives to the executive who has contributed the most in a year, the person said.

“Executives are leaving but some of that is because rivals are also poaching. They are building business lines and Mphasis has the talent,” another person with direct knowledge of these plans told ET. “Mphasis is also hiring to offset this. Two senior leaders joined the large strategic deals team in 2025 to boost growth.”

When senior leaders leave to join other companies, they tend to take other executives with them, the person said. He said this happened when Preeti Singh joined Coforge and when former senior VP Shrikrishna Tupkar moved to Tenarai in 2024.

Mphasis has sued Coforge and a former Mphasis executive Brijesh Khergamker who joined the rival company. In the lawsuit filed in the US, it has sought restrictions on solicitation of Mphasis clients.

“The problem for Mphasis is that though they are growing faster than a tier-1 company, they are not growing as fast as mid-tier companies such as Coforge and Persistent,” Pareekh Consulting CEO Pareekh Jain said. “Their investor Blackstone is now also investing in Anthropic, so the AI services may not necessarily come to them. They also have executives with good domain knowledge in BFSI, so they become a poaching ground. It is a combination of things.”

In a statement to ET, Mphasis said it does not comment on “individual people movements”.

“Given our unique positioning in the market, we attract top talent from the industry at leadership levels. In FY 2026, we have welcomed two CEO directs and 22 in the next level. In addition, we are also experiencing a high rate of former colleagues, including senior-level employees, returning to Mphasis, because they appreciate our unique hi-tech culture,” the statement said.

The company added that to execute its AI-led business goals, it would continue to “strengthen our leadership team through internal restructuring and external hiring”.