Wipro announces organizational changes

BANGALORE, INDIA: Wipro Ltd. today announced the appointment of senior vice president Shaji Farooq as the global head of its Banking, Finance Services and Insurance (BFSI) strategic business unit.

Shaji, who is currently leading the company's Advanced Technologies Service Line and Go-To-Market transformation initiatives, will take over from Senior Vice President Soumitro Ghosh, who will now head Wipro Infotech, the India and Middle East business.

With the growth momentum picking up in the US and European economies, the financial services industry presents significant opportunities. Shaji's long experience with the BFSI sector in the past stands him in good stead to shape Wipro's strategy for this vertical and help seize emerging opportunities. He will continue to be based in New York.

A Wipro veteran of 25 years, Soumitro Ghosh has played varied roles including his current position as the global head of BFSI. A founding member of the BFSI Strategic Business Unit, he has played a significant role in building this vertical and making it the largest BU of the company today. Soumitro will now power the India & Middle East businesses to maintain Wipro's leadership position in these markets. Soumitro will continue to operate from Bangalore.

G K Prasanna, will take charge as the senior vice president and global head for Global Infrastructure Services (GIS) in addition to his current role as SVP and Global Head for Product Engineering Solutions (PES). GKP, who has been with Wipro for more than 25 years, is an acknowledged authority on the IT Infrastructure Services business. He was the head of Wipro's Technology Infrastructure Services business between 2000 through 2009 and is credited with launching several innovative service delivery models.

Jeffrey (Jeff) Heenan Jalil, who has held several leadership roles including head of sales for manufacturing in Europe, chief sales and operations head for Europe, and most recently, Vice President and Global Head for Telecom Equipment Vendor and Media Verticals will assume the position of vice president and global head of advanced technologies.

T K Kurien, chief executive officer and executive director, Wipro Ltd. said: "Our strategy of driving a significantly higher degree of customer engagement and hyper growth has been paying dividends. In order to sustain this momentum, our leadership team has spent considerable time reviewing market opportunities, and sharply defining the focus areas that would fuel our growth ambition. The exercise reaffirmed our conviction in our chosen strategy. We are committed to better aligning our internal organization with our clients' needs and to make investments in driving predictability and automation in our delivery."

Shaji, Soumitro, G K Prasanna and Jeff will report into Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, T.K. Kurien, Wipro Ltd. These appointments will be effective Jan 1, 2014.

After a sterling career of over 24 years with Wipro, Anand Sankaran, currently Senior Vice President for Global Infrastructure Services and Wipro Infotech, has decided to pursue a career outside of Wipro. Anand has played a significant role in growing these businesses and Wipro thanks Anand for his contribution and wishes him the very best in his future endeavors.