After appointing new COO Abid Ali Neemuchwala, Wipro promotes company veterans as presidents

By Anirban Sen

BANGALORE: India’s third largest software exporter Wipro, which earlier on Monday named former TCS veteran Abid Ali Neemuchwala as its chief operating officer, has promoted internal veterans GK Prasanna and Bhanumurthy BM as presidents of their respective service lines, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.

Prasanna and Bhanumurthy currently head global infrastructure services and application services & strategic alliances. A company spokesperson confirmed the developments.

Under the new organizational structure, both Prasanna and Bhanumurthy will report to Neemuchwala, who will oversee all service lines and business operations of the company, except business outcomes, the geographies of Continental Europe, Africa and Latin America. He will also have responsibility for the strategic engagements, advisor relationships as well as the marketing function.

ET had reported earlier in March that Wipro initiated talks with TCS veteran Neemuchwala for a senior position at Wipro, right after he resigned from TCS.

As part of this organizational structure, Kurien will now have 15 direct reportees – nearly half the number of direct subordinates he oversaw when he first took over as CEO of Wipro in January 2011.

The 15 direct reportees include all the business unit and function heads including company veterans such as Anand Padmanabhan, Anurag Srivastava and Sangita Singh.