Claude Smadja retires from Infy board

BANGALORE, INDIA: India's IT major Infosys Technologies Limited today announced that, in accordance with the retirement policy for the company’s Board of Directors (Board), Claude Smadja, independent director, will retire from the Board effective August 30, 2010. Smadja joined the Infosys board in October 2001.

Thanking Smadja for his services and contributions to the company, N. R. Narayana Murthy, chairman of the board and chief mentor said, “We will miss his wonderful contributions. His vast knowledge of macroeconomics, corporate governance, his simple demeanor and courtesy had made Claude Smadja a heavy weight in board discussions and a favorite among the board members. We wish him the best in all his future endeavors.”

Smadja thanked the board and said, “Looking back at these nine years, I feel that it has been a privilege to serve on the board in whatever way I could, and to be part of a fast growing and dynamic enterprise. I am convinced that Infosys has all it takes to continue to go from strength to strength in an increasingly complex global environment and to achieve all the successes that its enormous potential warrants”.

Smadja is the president of Smadja & Associates Inc., a strategic advisory firm he founded in 2001. From January 1996 to June 2001, he was the managing director of the World Economic Forum, with overall responsibility for the Davos annual meeting and the forum’s activities in Asia. Prior to that, Smadja served as the director of the News and Current Affairs Department of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. He received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Lausanne.