By Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte resigned on Saturday after a difficult few years at India’s No. 4 IT services company, to be replaced by the head of its largest market.
Srinivas Pallia, a company veteran, will take over as CEO and managing director starting April 7, Wipro said in a statement, adding that Delaporte was leaving to “pursue his passions outside of work.”
The Bangalore-based software services exporter has had a turbulent few years, with its operating model changed twice in three years, several high-profile departures and a few costly acquisitions that failed to translate into growth.
Delaporte, whose five-year term was initially due to end in July 2025, said he was “proud of the strong foundations” he helped lay for Wipro.
Some industry observers don’t share his assessment of his time at the helm.
“He wasn’t spending enough time visiting his teams in India or the United States. Morale at Wipro was at an all-time low,” said Phil Fersht, founder of HFS Research.
Wipro is likely to be the only one of India’s four largest IT companies to end its final financial year with a decline in revenue.
Pallia, who joined Wipro in 1992, was the right choice to succeed Delaporte, said Ray Wang, principal analyst and founder of Constellation Research.
“Pallia is the best bet they have right now and they will have to work hard to bring back (the) good people who left and develop the next generation of Wipro,” he added.
He takes over at a time when the company and India’s $254 billion IT sector are grappling with weak customer spending, amid inflationary pressures and economic uncertainty in key markets such as the United States and Europe.
Wipro has struggled to win large contracts and won its only mega-contract under Delaporte in December 2020, with German retailer Metro AG.
A DIFFICULT TASK AHEAD
Pallia’s priority should be to retain talent and strengthen the company’s image and morale, said Pareekh Jain, founder of IT research firm EIIR Trend.
It should also help Wipro “get its act together and win important contracts” to catch up with larger rivals such as Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, Jain added.
Delaporte could not immediately be reached for further comment.
Pallia led Wipro’s Americas 1 market, a role in which he oversaw healthcare, consumer goods, life sciences, retail and other industries. Based in New Jersey, he will report to company president Rishad Premji.
Wipro’s competitors have also seen changes at the top. Industry leader Tata Consultancy Services promoted insider K Krithivasan to CEO last year after the abrupt departure of Rajesh Gopinathan, while Infosys veteran Mohit Joshi took over as CEO of Tech Mahindra in December 2023.
LTIMindtree has identified two internal candidates for its top job as it is unlikely to extend the tenure of CEO Debashis Chatterjee, which is expected to end next year, sources told Reuters earlier this year.
(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B; editing by Mark Potter, Dhanya Skariachan and Ros Russell)
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