IT giant Cognizant on Thursday, January 12, appointed Ravi Kumar S as its new Chief Executive Officer who will replace Brian Humphries. Kumar spent 20 years at Infosys where he served as the president and COO until October 2022 before joining Cognizant as the President of Cognizant Americas.
The move comes at a time when analysts, after recent earnings, have indicated that the firm’s performance necessitated leadership changes.
Brian Humphries resigned from the post after four years, a move that was linked to Cognizant’s recent underperformance, which includes revenue decline in the third quarter of 2022 and record high attrition rates. Humphries stays on as a special advisor till March 15 to facilitate smooth transition.
Cognizant also named Surya Gummadi as the president of Cognizant Americas, while Stephen J. Rohleder, who has been a member of Cognizant’s board since March 2022, was elected chair of the board.
Who is Ravi Kumar S.?
Ravi Kumar S. has a bachelor's degree in engineering from Shivaji University and Master’s in Business Administration from Xavier Institute of Management, India.
He started his career as a nuclear scientist at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center and moved to PricewaterhouseCoopers as a senior consultant after three years. He also served as associate director for one year at Cambridge technology partners.
He then joined Oracle Corporation in 2000 as business head, CRM license sales, Southeast Asia till 2002.
He then joined Infosys in 2002 where he held various roles including executive vice president, global head of the insurance, healthcare, and cards and payments business unit, and senior vice president and global head of consulting and systems integration.
During his time at Infosys, Kumar oversaw business operations in India, Latin America, Japan, and China and led the Infosys Public Services and Infosys Consulting Services subsidiaries.
In 2017, he was appointed as the deputy chief operating officer (COO) of Infosys and was tipped to be the company's next COO. However, Infosys did away with the post in 2021 following incumbent UB Pravin Rao's retirement.
He most recently served as president of Infosys from January 2016 to October 2022.
Kumar led Infosys Global Services Organization across all industry segments in his last role. Infosys also unveiled the Metaverse Foundry under his leadership.
Kumar, who will also become a member of the Board at Cognizant, currently serves on the boards of directors of TransUnion, and Digimarc Corporation. He is also on the board of governors of the New York Academy of Sciences and the board of directors of the US Chamber of Commerce.
