Philips’ Krish Shankar may Join Infosys as HR Head

NEW DELHI: Krish Shankar, the head of human resources for South Asia at Philips and the former executive director for human resources at telecom operator Bharti Airtel is a front runner to join India’s second largest software services firm Infosys as its new global HR head, according to sources familiar with the development.

Infosys had been scouting for a new human resources head after Srikantan Moorthy moved to another role at the company recently. “There is nothing like this on the cards,” Shankar said in response to an email. An Infosys spokesperson said the company does not comment on speculation related to hiring.

Sources privy to the developments said Shankar is likely to join Infosys in November. Infosys also announced the appointment of Richard Lobo as the HR head for its Indian operations earlier this month.

A management reshuffle has been underway at Infosys after CEO Vishal Sikka took charge. Infosys had announced in February that it was realigning its organisational structure effective 1 April, to sharpen its competitive differentiation across service lines.

An XLRI-Jamshedpur alumnus, Shankar who is currently heading HR for the Indian subcontinent at Philips was executive director of human resources for Bharti Airtel for close to seven years. Before that, he worked with Unilever for about 20 years in different roles as VP, HR, for Asia-AMET ( Africa, Middle East, Turkey) markets.

He was a business partner for the regional organisation and functions of customer development, supply chain, finance etc at Unilever. He also worked as an HR business partner for the foods, beverages and exports business at Unilever.