Too early to discuss LTIMindtree’s CEO succession plan, says L&T’s AM Naik

AM Naik, chairman emeritus, LTIMindtree and L&T Group

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L&T’s Chairman Emeritus AM Naik on June 26 cleared industry speculations saying that the company will start to look for a successor to LTIMindtree CEO Debashis Chatterjee only six to nine months before his term ends.

Moneycontrol had exclusively reported that the company’s current chief operating officer (COO) Nachiket Deshpande has emerged as the front runner to succeed Chatterjee, the first CEO of the combined LTIMindtree after the merger in November 2022.

While Chatterjee’s term is set to officially end at the end of 2025, he might hand over the reins a few quarter earlier and oversee the transition to a new CEO, sources had earlier said.

Addressing the media at a briefing in Mumbai, Naik, who is also chairman emeritus of LTIMindtree said, “He (Chatterjee) is still there for the next 18 months. It is too early to start that. After about a year that means six months to nine months before we will see what further to do.”

The other favourite executive who is in the race to take over as CEO at LTIMindtree is Sudhir Chaturvedi, who is currently the president for sales and an executive board member at the company.

Over the past one and a half year, LTIMindtree has also seen senior management attrition rise, with at least two dozen top executives leaving and joining rivals tech companies.

According to media reports, in 2024 alone, around eight top executives have resigned. The most recent one being chief financial officer (CFO) Vinit Teredesai. He later joined Persistent Systems as the CFO in May.

When asked about the significant leadership churn in a recent interview with Moneycontrol, CEO Chatterjee had said, “We had a significant leadership bandwidth also available across the two organisations. That's why we are very confident that it actually creates more opportunities for some of the leaders in the system.”

“At this point of time, we are very well positioned and whatever leadership exits here and there, we can always tide over that and we can always get back,” he said.

Chatterjee had also added that “succession planning is a very routine part of risk management exercise for any company of our size. And beyond that, we should not read into anything.”