10 things to know about Vishal Sikka as he steps down as CEO of Infosys

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Vishal Sikka resigned from the position of Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Infosys and he was named Executive Vice-Chairman on Friday. He spent three years as CEO of the Bengaluru headquartered company.

Here are the things to know about the man who is claimed to have pioneered the concept of ‘timeless software’:

1) Sikka was born in Madhya Pradesh to Punjabi parents. He spent his childhood and later his adolescence in Vadodara after he moved there at the age of six. His father was an officer with the Indian Railways and his mother a teacher.

Also Read: Full text: What Vishal Sikka said in his resignation letter to Infosys

2) After completing his schooling from Rosary High School, he joined Bachelor course in Computer Science at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara but dropped it to later join Syracuse University in New York where he earned a BS in Computer Science. He also holds a PhD from Stanford University.

3) He founded two startups, Bodha.com—a company developing innovative e-commerce technologies using knowledge-based information integration, and iBrain Software—which was later acquired by PatternRx, Inc., a bioinformatics firm.

4) In his initial days, he worked at research positions with Xerox (Fuji) Palo Alto Labs, CommerceNet, and Stanford University.

5) Starting from 2002, he had a long stint of 12 years at SAP SE—a German MNC which provides software solutions. At SAP, he donned multiple hats from time to time, before becoming its first Chief Technology Officer in 2007. In 2010, he also joined the executive board of the company.

6) Sikka was responsible for overall technology architecture and ensuring coherence in SAP’s product strategy and is credited for bringing a deep focus on design and user experience.

7) Sikka is also credited with creating SAP’s breakthrough in-memory data platform SAP HANA, the fastest growing product in SAP’s history.

8) The customer-first approach of Sikka led him to pioneer the concept of ‘timeless software’, in simple words, products which allow the update and renewal of software without any disruption in user experience.

9) Sikka eventually joined Infosys in June 2014 as its CEO and MD. Here he continued his focus on user experience and he was credited to drive down company costs using automation and artificial intelligence. He also introduced initiatives like Zero Distance, which focuses on finding innovation in every project for every client.

10) However, lately, he has been embroiled in controversies with founders and primary investors of the software giant. The core issues of founders' concerns were hefty compensation which Sikka was privy to and governance at Infosys.