Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) has appointed R Gopinathan as its new chief executive officer and managing director, the company announced in a media statement on Thursday. Gopinathan, currently CFO, will take over from Natarajan Chandrasekaran who has been named chairman of parent Tata Sons.
Prior to becoming the CFO of TCS in February 2013, Gopinath was responsible for financial management of the company's individual operating units. He had joined TCS in 2001. Like Chandrasekaran, Gopinath too has an engineering degree from Regional Engineering College in Trichy. He then completed a post-graduate diploma from Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad.
I would like to thank the TCS Board and Chandra for the privilege and honor to lead this great organization. TCS has evolved into an industry leader during Chandra’s tenure. It is definitely big shoes to fill. With continuous guidance from Chandra and the support of the TCS team, I am confident of continuing this great journey that TCS is on.Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO-Designate, TCS
The TCS statement, however, does not clarify who will succeed Gopinathan as the next CFO.
N Ganpathy Subramaniam, president of TCS Financial Solutions, will take over as president and chief operating officer of TCS. A Tata veteran who has been with TCS for 34 years, Subramaniam will also occupy a board seat.
I sincerely thank the TCS Board for this honor. Chandra has provided a great platform through his visionary leadership. I look forward to working with Rajesh and the rest of my colleagues and contribute to TCS’ future growth.N Ganpathy Subramaniam, President, TCS Financial Solutions
Both are expected to take over their new role from 21 February 2017.
N Chandrasekaran supported the elevation of his two colleagues during a company conference call.
He (Gopinathan) is a person who has had a vast experience on the business side, and the finance side, and more importantly he has an end-to-end perspective of the business, not only in terms of operations and numbers but also in terms of strategic options beforehand. I am very confident he will lead TCS to greater heights.N Chandrasekaran, Chairman-Designate, Tata Sons
(Subramaniam) was heading our operations in Europe. He was managing the financial services business for a long time. He was responsible for building many of our strategic relationships like American Express. He has extreme level of confidence from the customers for his thought leadership. I must say that he is probably one of the best professionals who can talk authoritatively on financial technology.
N Chandrasekaran, Chairman-Designate, Tata Sons
(Originally published on Bloomberg Quint)
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