Wipro files complaint against former senior executive for violating non-compete clause: Report

Wipro is currently seeing a significant increase in top level exits.

IT services major Wipro has filed a complaint against a former senior executive for violation of a non-compete clause in his employment contract to join Cognizant. Mohd Haque, Wipro’s former senior vice president (SVP) and head of healthcare and medical devices for the Americas, joined rival Cognizant as its SVP and business unit head for life sciences, before the end of his non-compete clause tenure till August 1, 2023.

Wipro in its complaint has alleged that Haque was in possession of seven files with confidential information, which was sent from his personal Gmail account as flagged by its IT team.

Additionally, the company alleged that other files too were uploaded and sent outside Wipro to his personal email account.

“Shortly before his resignation was to be effective, Haque surreptitiously uploaded multiple Wipro files and sent them outside Wipro to his personal email account. Haque also misrepresented his intentions to Wipro on multiple times untruthfully telling the Company that he was not planning to work at Cognizant. To date, Haque has not even updated his LinkedIn to reflect his new employment,” Wipro said in a complaint filed against Haque in a US court.

This development was first reported by TOI.

Haque had joined Wipro in 2010 as the VP for enterprise application services in Bengaluru. He was promoted to the SVP and unit head role in 2023, wherein he was responsible for managing a team of 21,000 employees overseeing P&L, sales, strategy, delivery, consulting, and account management.

Wipro is currently seeing a significant increase in top level exits. In 2023 alone, the company lost 10 senior executives including CFO Jatin Dalal. This comes at a time when when incumbent CEO Thierry Delaporte has been under pressure for middling growth and falling margins.