Persistent's Teredesai is latest to cross tech companies' CFO revolving door

The latest was Vinit Teredesai who joined Persistent Systems Ltd from LTI Mindtree, where he was CFO since its formation in late 2022. Earlier, CFO departures were seen at India’s biggest IT firms including Infosys Ltd, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp, Wipro Ltd, Tech Mahindra Ltd, LTIMindtree Ltd and Coforge Ltd.

Also read | Vinit Teredesai resigns as LTIMindtree CFO, Vipul Chandra to take over

Two of the seven CFOs have switched to a new IT company, while the others retired or left to pursue other professional and personal opportunities.

Most of the exits took place in four of India’s top six IT companies, which reported a collective revenue of $40 billion in FY24, which is 16% of India’s $250-billion IT Industry.

Five out of the seven CFOs who were appointed were internal candidates, signalling the top management's trust in its own ranks.

After Jatin Dalal quit Wipro after more than a decade to join Cognizant, Wipro handed the keys to Aparna Iyer, who has been with the company for two decades, going against former CEO Delaporte’s strategy of bringing outside hires to return the company to growth.

Also read | Wipro sues former CFO Jatin Dalal; what we know so far

Notably, all CFO appointments have not immediately followed those of their companies’ respective CEOs, barring Cognizant, where Dalal joined almost a year after S. Ravi Kumar took over as CEO. Dalal joined Cognizant from Wipro as its CFO in December 2023.

Shriram Subramanian, founder of proxy advisory firm InGovern Research Services, said companies needing a new culture altogether have their CEOs bring in their own candidates as CFOs.

"Most top-tier IT services companies tend to be cash-rich, and hence, the role of the CFO goes beyond accounting and tax management to treasury, cross border financial planning and cash management," Subramanian added.

Not all analysts were of the same view.

“A change in CFO does not make any difference to the company as these are all cash-rich companies and there is no real need to raise more capital. Not only CFOs, most top bosses in the IT companies have been changed if there has been a churn in top management. A lot of them leave because they are probably offered a better package," said Omkar Tanksale, research analyst at Axis Securities.

“Because IT companies have been hiring fewer employees compared to previous years, the top management looks to hire CXOs better suited to their needs," added Tanksale.

India’s top four IT companies saw their headcount cumulatively drop by more than 60,000 on a yearly basis in FY24.

Queries emailed to Cognizant, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, LTIMindtree, Persistent Systems, and Coforge remained unanswered, while Infosys declined to comment.