Change of guard: KV Kamath is new Infosys chairman

It's the end of an era for Infosys. 30 years from its inception, founder and chief mentor Narayana Murthy will step down in August 2011 giving way to KV Kamath, the current non-executive chairman of ICICI Bank. Kamath has been an independent director on the Infosys board since May 2009.

The other contender for the post was Kris Gopalakrishnan, the current CEO of Infosys, who is both a co-founder and the man responsible for making Infosys one of the top three IT firms in the country. Kris has been elevated to the post of executive co-chairman. "He would continue to work on customer-employee-investor connect," outgoing chief Murthy told reporters. With this, SD Shibulal, the current chief operating officer, will take over as the chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys on August 21, 2011. Having known Kamath for 41 years, Murthy appeared pleased with all three appointments. "Kamath has been an extraordinary leader at ICICI. The nominations panel had been looking for a new chairman for over a year and the unanimous opinion of the panel was to strengthen customer-employee-investor connect." An equally pleased Jeffrey Lehman independent director at Infosys and the chairman of the nominations committee said, "The primary responsibility of the nominations panel was to help plan a transitional phase from the Murthy-era, which must give confidence to all stakeholders that Infy's quality and standards will endure. We feel all three individuals are spectacular and will make a remarkable team. We are confident that all of them will have great chemistry and will be effective leaders. In Kris, Kamath will have an extraordinary partner in leading the company. Shibulal, has been preparing for this role for decades. He has been a perfect partner to Kris and knows the company in-and-out." Having admired Murthy for epitomising the spirit of India, Kamath accepted the new role at Infy with humility and said nobody can replace Murthy. "I can be the chairman of the board but not Murthy. He has built a company with intellect and integrity. Infosys has a strong foundation of ethics, integrity and governance."