Bangalore: The departure of B.G. Srinivas , the president of Infosys Ltd and who was seen as a possible chief executive officer, may leave India’s second-largest software exporter with no option but to hire an outsider at the helm.

Srinivas had decided to put in his papers at least two weeks ago but was being persuaded to stay on, two people familiar with the development said, requesting anonymity.

The departure of Infosys veteran Srinivas also underscores another significant moment in the history of the firm’s top leadership—all the five non-founder leaders, who were part of its executive council since it was first formed and positioned as the next generation of leaders, have left Infosys.

The other executives on that list were the Infosys Americas head Ashok Vemuri; BPO and the India business head V. Balakrishnan, former finance chief T. Mohandas Pai and former global sales head Subhash Dhar. They were members of the board as well.

“B.G. Srinivas has been an integral part of Infosys and has played an important role in the company’s growth. The board and every Infoscion thank B.G. Srinivas for his wonderful contribution and wish him great success in his future endeavors," chairman and co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy said in a statement.

The unprecedented top-level exodus that has so far seen at least 11 executives leave Infosys since Murthy’s return in June last year, not only leaves Infosys with limited options of choosing a CEO from within, but also underscores the instability at the top rung at a time when Murthy is attempting to orchestrate a revival in its fortunes.

President U.B. Pravin Rao, who was elevated to the board in June, is seen as the one of the few other internal candidates who are still in the race, but the balance has shifted towards an external candidate, people familiar with the developments said.

“A decision will be taken at the next board meeting (before the annual general meeting in June). The final list of names will be presented then," said one of the people.

Earlier in May, other than Srinivas and Rao, Infosys executives such as Manish Tandon, Sandeep Dadlani and Ravi Kumar S. had been interviewed for the post of CEO, one of the people mentioned above said.

“There are broader ramifications of this exit—now the challenge is to ensure that customers don’t panic," said the second person mentioned above, who is an Infosys executive and declined to be named.

Top clients of Infosys include the likes of Bank of America, which contributes more than $300 million of annual revenue fro Infosys, Procter and Gamble and AstraZeneca.

“There is nobody with enterprise-level experience within Infosys right now, so they have no option but to go with an outsider," said a former Infosys board member, who declined to be named.

The departure of Srinivas, who was overseeing nearly $3 billion of annual business for Infosys, leaves a huge vacuum in the top echelons of the $8-billion company and will serve as a huge blow to the board, which is scrambling to find a viable candidate to take over as the company’s first non-founder CEO.

Experts tracking Infosys said Srinivas’s exit is a crippling blow, one that Infosys will find hard to recover from.

“The bloodshed at the top has strengthened the competition and that’s going to have an impact on the recovery of Infosys," said Peter Schumacher, founder of Germany-based Value Leadership Group that advises companies on their Europe strategy. “Customers are already concerned and they will be more concerned now (with this latest exit)."

The exit of Srinivas, who was overseeing more than $3 billion of annual business for Infosys, is easily the most high-profile departure at Infosys over the past year. Other such exits include those of iGate CEO Ashok Vemuri and V. Balakrishnan, who has since joined AAP.

Srinivas, who was also a board member at India’s second largest software services exporter, will stay with Infosys till 10 June. No reason was given for his departure.

“I thank Infosys for the wonderful opportunity given to me. My tenure at Infosys has been one of my most rewarding experiences, and I am proud to have contributed to the best growth story in the industry. I wish the Board and Infosys the best of success in the future," said Srinivas in a statement.

Srinivas joined Infosys in 1999 and was instrumental in setting up the company’s enterprise solutions business, which eventually became the company’s largest horizontal unit, contributing 21% of overall revenue.

Over the years, he has overseen crucial verticals such as manufacturing, banking and financial services. Prior to his departure, he was also overseeing engineering services and energy and communications, among others.

anirban.s@livemint.com

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