Cognizant splits responsibilities of Global Growth Markets after Rob Walker’s exit

Manoj Mehta will head the EMEA market, and Jane Livesey will head the APJ region.

The US-based Cognizant announced on August 17 that it was splitting responsibilities of the Global Growth Markets region, which covers all of the IT major's markets outside of North America. The two new appointments come when Cognizant sees an exit of people who were appointed during former Chief Executive Officer Brian Humphries’ tenure.

Rob Walker, who joined the company in January 2021 and was leading the Global Growth Markets since June 2022, stepped down last month. Walker was appointed to the position after his predecessor, Ursula Morgenstern, was “involuntarily terminated without cause”.

Now, for Global Growth Markets, a note sent by CEO Ravi Kumar S to associates said the responsibilities will be split between Jane Livesey and Cognizant veteran Manoj Mehta. Both will also join the Executive Committee, the company’s core leadership team that reports to the CEO.

Mehta will head the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) market, “representing our commercial and delivery interests in northern, central, and southern Europe, Middle East, Africa, and the United Kingdom and Ireland”, according to Kumar’s note.

Mehta has been at the company for over 18 years, and has led its large deals team, Global Head of Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things, was the interim head of Global Growth Markets and also has had commercial leadership roles in Continental Europe and Benelux.

Livesey will head the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region, with Australia, New Zealand, ASEAN, Greater China, India, and Japan under her. She joined Cognizant from PwC, and previously ran the company’s Australia and New Zealand geography.

“GGM represents a vast geographic range and as nearly all GGM markets will grow in 2023, we have the obligation to appropriately scale them for future opportunities – further globalizing Cognizant’s footprint and channeling that energy into a growth mindset,” Kumar’s note said.

He added that over half the company’s market opportunity is outside the Americas, and the focus of Global Growth Markets is to capture this opportunity.

“They [Livesey and Mehta] will continue to pursue Cognizant’s growth strategy – strategic growth accounts, acquisitions, large deals, brand success – but will imprint the unique regional nuance onto that strategy in each of their regions to better help accelerate revenue growth,” he said.

With the leadership being split under the Global Growth Markets vertical, he said that the two markets — EMEA and APJ will “receive support from a shared GGM Office, corporate functions, service lines, strategy & growth, and industry leads structure.”

It’s a time of upheaval in terms of top-level changes for Cognizant, after Kumar took over as CEO in January post Humphries’ termination after the company underperformed for several quarters and growth lagged peers.

Humphries-era appointees who have exited the company include Chief People Officer Becky Schmitt, EVP Strategy and Technology Anil Cheriyan, and Head of Global Delivery Andy Stafford.

Chief Financial Officer Jan Siegmund has chosen to retire in early 2024, and will stay in the role until a successor is found to help with the transition.

During the company’s call after it announced its results for the June quarter, Kumar said that Cognizant has a healthy bench, and that he’s looking to build leadership from within the company, bringing back Cognizant employees who previously left, and also by way of external hires.