A day after being appointed as Infosys Chairman, Nandan Nilekani presided over a meeting of the Board of Directors on Friday.
Commenting on the decisions taken at the meeting Nilekani stated, “I am extremely excited about the future of Infosys. The Board is focused on bringing complete stability to the Company. It has also tasked its Committee of Directors to work with the CEO and management to review and refresh the Company’s strategy by October.”
Further Infosys put out a statement which said that there has been considerable discussion recently on the relationship between the Board of Directors of Infosys Limited and Narayana Murthy who established the culture and ethos of Infosys, especially its culture of adhering to high corporate governance standards.
The Board believes it to be unfortunate that various differences of opinion have arisen between Murthy and the Board in the recent past.
However, the Board wishes to express that it was not its intention to cause Murthy or any other affected person any personal distress or anguish while stating its point of view. The Company has previously authorised investigations into allegations made by anonymous persons regarding the conduct of prior management, and each of these investigations concluded that there was no wrongdoing. While the Board and the Company are focused on the future, consistent with the Company’s commitment to good governance, the new Chairman will get a full briefing on these investigations and the appropriate course of action will be decided, the statement said.
As the Board has stated on numerous occasions, it takes the Company’s reputation for high corporate governance standards with the utmost seriousness. Hence, it has, as previously disclosed, decided that it will engage in further broad-based shareholder consultations to determine what further measures if any, the Company can take to ensure that it continues to adhere to high governance standards.
The Board has also approved the appointment of the executive recruitment firm Egon Zehnder to work with its Nominations and Remunerations Committee to review and identify the right candidate to be the Company’s next CEO and MD.
Additionally, the Nominations and Remunerations Committee will deliberate on the long term governance structure of the Board and present its recommendations at the meeting of the Board in October, the statement added.
Finally, the Board would like to state that it is firmly focused on ensuring that the affairs of the Company and the interests of all its stakeholders – its customers, employees, shareholders, officers and directors – are harmoniously aligned and enhanced, the statement concluded.