Bengaluru: Infosys Ltd’s manufacturing and hi-tech business head Sanjay Jalona has quit the company and is expected to become the chief executive of privately held L&T Infotech, the technology arm of India’s biggest engineering company Larsen and Toubro Ltd, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Jalona headed Infosys’s second-largest unit, which brought in about 23% of its overall revenue of $8.7 billion. He put in his papers on Tuesday, when Infosys reported strong first-quarter results. His resignation was accepted on Wednesday. Jalona is expected to take the helm of Mumbai-based L&T Infotech, which is expected to go public early next year and is estimated to have a revenue of $800 million. The company counts Citibank and Chevron as its big customers.
L&T Infotech is expected to announce Jalona’s appointment in the coming days.
Infosys declined to comment on Wednesday, while an email sent to L&T Infotech went unanswered. Jalona did not respond to multiple calls and emails seeking comment.
L&T Infotech has been without a CEO for some time now. Its joint CEOs Vivek Chopra and Mukesh Aghi quit in October 2014. Managing director V.K. Magapu has been overseeing operations.
“It’s always a great opportunity for someone to take a company public and this explains (why) Sanjay is taking the role,” said an executive who declined to be named.
For Infosys, this is the second senior executive to leave the company after Vishal Sikka was named as the first non-founder CEO in August last year. In November, Gautam Thakkar, the head of Infosys BPO, resigned on “moral grounds” after the parent company found the unit had overbilled Apple Inc., one of its key clients. For now, Infosys has decided to split the manufacturing unit’s responsibilities among other unit heads, those people said.
