iGate shortlists Cognizant's veteran employee Debashis Chatterjee for COO rank

Chennai-headquartered Cognizant’s former employee Debashis Chatterjee is now being pursued by Phaneesh-Murthy led iGate for the post of the company’s chief operating officer. Debashis was leading the banking and financial services sector for Cognizant for over 7 years and was a Cognizant veteran having worked with the organization for 14 years.

Sources tell ET NOW that he has now emerged as the frontrunner for the position of iGate’s COO and will be leading all verticals of this company, if he accepts the offer. An announcement is likely to be made by mid-March, according to sources in the company. However, iGate refused to confirm this news.

After iGate made its successful bid for Patni, the process of integrations has begun for the companies and identifying new leaders is an integral part of this process. Nasdaq-listed iGate is now on the last leg of completion for this acquisition, having made an open offer for another 20.6% stake in Patni.

The iGate-Patni combined entity has formed a panel comprising Phaneesh Murthy, Jeya Kumar and a Deloitte representative to see through this integration process of the companies. All domains now have a Patni and iGate representative to oversee any integration issues that may arise. “The integration process has been fairly smooth so far. iGate works in domains where Patni is not present and vice versa. Their strengths are complementary,” added the source.