Cognizant executive Debashis Chatterjee to be new Mindtree CEO: Report

Cognizant executive Debashis Chatterjee will take over as Mindtree CEO from August 1, news channel CNBC TV18 reported, citing sources. Chatterjee had joined Cognizant in 1996 and has held several key management positions. In a LinkedIn post, he said that his over-two-decade stint with Cognizant ends today. In his latest role, he held the position of executive vice president and president, global delivery, at Cognizant. Chatterjee holds a Bachelor’s in Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering, from Jadavpur University.

Mindtree’s former top executives - Chief Executive Officer Rostow Ravanan, Chairman Krishnakumar Natarajan and Vice Chairman Parthasarathy NS – had earlier quit this month after L&T’s takeover of the mid-tier IT company. Subroto Bagchi, one of the key founding members of Mindtree, also chose to retire from the board of the company with effect from 17 July.

Mindtree had earlier announced that L&T had acquired control of the company and had been categorised as a promoter with 60.06% stake in the company.

L&T's takeover of Mindtree marked India's first-ever hostile takeover in the IT space. The infrastructure giant had bought 20.32% shares in Mindtree from Coffee Day Enterprises founder VG Siddhartha for over ₹3,000 crore in March. Later, it shored up its holding with more share purchases from the open market before making an open offer for an additional 31% stake.

Mindtree Ltd in the April-June quarter had reported 41% drop in its quarterly profit because of higher expenses. Net profit fell to ₹92.7 crore in the quarter ended 30 June from ₹158.2 crore in the year earlier.

The company’s total expenses rose to ₹1,730 crore in the April-June period from ₹1,451.3 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

Revenue rose 11.9% to ₹1,834.2 crore in the June quarter from ₹1,639.5 crore in the year-ago period. However, on a sequential basis, it was lower than the ₹1,839.4 crore reported in the March quarter.

The company, which primarily provides IT services to retail, consumer packaged goods manufacturing, banking, media, travel and hospitality industries, had 346 active clients as on 30 June.