Wipro CEO Delaporte resigns; to be replaced by veteran insider

By Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Wipro Chief Executive Officer Thierry Delaporte resigned on Saturday following a fraught few years for India's No. 4 IT services company, to be succeeded by the head of its biggest market.

Srinivas Pallia, a veteran of the company, will take over as CEO and managing director from April 7, Wipro said in a statement, adding Delaporte was leaving to "pursue passions outside the workplace".

The Bengaluru-based software services exporter has had a turbulent few years, with its operating model changing twice in three years, several top-level departures, and some expensive acquisitions that did not translate to growth.

Delaporte, whose five-year term was originally set to end in July 2025, said that he was "proud of the solid foundation" he had helped to lay for Wipro.

Some industry watchers did not share his assessment of his time at the helm.

"He was not spending nearly enough time visiting his teams in India or the U.S. The morale at Wipro was at an all-time low," said HFS Research founder Phil Fersht.

Wipro is likely to be the only one of India's top four IT firms to end the most recent fiscal year with a drop in revenue.

Pallia, who joined Wipro in 1992, was the right choice to succeed Delaporte, said Ray Wang, principal analyst and founder of Constellation Research.

"Pallia is the best bet they have right now and they will have to work hard to bring back (the) good people who have left and develop the next generation of Wipro," he added.

He takes over at a time when the company and the larger $254 billion Indian IT industry grapples with weak client spending amid inflationary pressures and economic uncertainty in key markets such as the United States and Europe.

Wipro has struggled to win large deals, and won its only mega deal under Delaporte in December 2020, with German retailer Metro AG.

TOUGH TASK AHEAD

Pallia's priority should be to retain talent and boost the image and morale of the company, said Pareekh Jain, the founder of IT research firm EIIR Trend.

He should also help Wipro "buck up and win large deals" to catch up with larger rivals such as Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, Jain added.

Delaporte could not immediately be reached for further comment.

Pallia has been head of Wipro's Americas 1 market, a role in which he oversaw healthcare, consumer goods, life sciences, retail, and other sectors. Based out of New Jersey, he will report to company Chairman Rishad Premji.

Wipro's rivals have also seen changes at the top. Industry leader Tata Consultancy Services promoted insider K Krithivasan to CEO last year after Rajesh Gopinathan quit abruptly, while Infosys veteran Mohit Joshi took over as Tech Mahindra CEO in December 2023.

LTIMindtree has identified two internal candidates for its top job, as it is unlikely to extend CEO Debashis Chatterjee's term that is set to end next year, sources told Reuters earlier this year.

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B; Editing by Mark Potter, Dhanya Skariachan and Ros Russell)