BANGALORE, INDIA: Three days ahead of its quarterly results announcement for Q1 2013, Infosys Limited's Global Sales, Marketing and Alliances head, Basab Pradhan, seems to have called it quits.
"Leaving Infosys to go back to the startup world. To all my friends at Infosys - please stay in touch," (sic) read the executive council member's tweet (from his official hashtag, @basabp) on Tuesday, clearly making his intentions clear.
Interestingly, he was tipped as one of the frontrunners to take over from incumbent CEO, S.D. Shibulal, when he is scheduled to retire in early 2015. It is also pertinent to note that it has been just a month since Infosys co-founder, N.R. Narayana Murthy returned to the fold from his retirement, though it is too early to say whether it had any bearing on Pradhan's exit.
In fact, it was not the first time Pradhan resigned from Infosys to float his own start-up venture, Gridstone Research. "Over two stints at Infosys, Basab has played many roles in the organization across sales, marketing, industry solutions and P&L leadership. Starting with opening the company's first sales office in the New York area in 1995, Basab has been intimately involved in the formation and growth of the offshore services industry. During his leadership as the Head of Global Sales, the company grew from US$ 400 million to US$ 2 billion," states Infosys website.
After working for near two years since 2011 after his comeback to Infy, he might have decided it was time to follow his inner calling once again.
Infosys, on its part, is yet to issue any official statement on Pradhan's decision to move out.