Priya Padmanabhan
BANGALORE: NR Narayana Murthy will step down as chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd on his 60th birthday. He will turn 60 on August 20 this year.
“According to our company regulations, the retirement age for chairman is 60. However, I will become non-executive chairman of the company from 21st August,” Murthy told CyberMedia News here today.
The tenure of his non-executive chairmanship would be for five years. Murthy said that his new role would be to ensure that board members discharge their functions well, ensure company governance and see that there is no violation of ethics or norms.
He added that he would also see that the company is insulated from risks.
Besides being chairman, Murthy is also the chief mentor at Infosys and admits that he spends just around five-eight days in a month at Infosys.
To a question on why he is not playing a more active role in the company, Murthy said that he is a proactive person by nature.
“When Nandan (Nilekani) took over in 2002, I decided to slowly wean away from direct involvement since people would continue to come to me than Nandan,” he said.
Murthy also said that the company had ensured a good succession plan and is also identifying and grooming potential leaders through the Infosys Leadership Institute.
Murthy served as the chief executive officer of Infosys between 1981 and 2002. Under his leadership, Infosys was listed on NASDAQ in 1999. In March 2002, he handed over the reins of the company to co-founder Nandan M. Nilekani.
Born on August 20, 1946, Murthy is the chairman of the governing body of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School; Cornell University Board of Trustees; Singapore Management University Board of Trustees; INSEAD's Board of Directors and the Asian Institute of Management's Board of Governors.
Murthy is also a member of the Advisory Boards and Councils of the William F. Achtmeyer Center for Global Leadership at the Tuck School of Business, the Corporate Governance initiative at the Harvard Business School, and the Yale University President's Council on International Activities.
He has led key corporate governance initiatives in India. He was the Chairman of the Committee on Corporate Governance appointed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 2003.
Infosys' chief mentor also serves as an independent director on the board of the DBS Bank, Singapore's largest government-owned bank. He is a member of the Asia Pacific Advisory Board of British Telecommunications Plc., and a member of the Board of New Delhi Television Ltd. (NDTV), India.
Murthy also serves as a director on the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India, as a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the United Nations Foundation. He is an IT advisor to several Asian countries and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors.
Murthy holds a B.E. from the University of Mysore and a M. Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
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