UB Pravin Rao named interim Infosys CEO: A man who was hired and nurtured by Narayana Murthy

Infosys today appointed UB Pravin Rao as interim chief executive officer and managing director of the company. Pravin Rao is currently the chief operating officer of Infosys. He has overall strategic and operational responsibility for the entire portfolio of the company's offerings. Pravin is also Chairperson of Infosys BPO.

• Pravin joined Infosys in 1986 and since then he has held a number of senior leadership roles including chief operating officer, head of infrastructure management services, delivery head for europe, and head of retail, consumer packaged goods, logistics and life sciences. He has over 30 years of experience.
• Pravin holds a degree in electrical engineering from Bangalore University, India. He is a member of the National Council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Executive Council of Nasscom.
• Pravin was hired and nurtured by Infosys founder Narayana Murthy. Earlier in April, Rao was in news for his massive pay hike approved by the Board. Rao's total salary increased to Rs 11.80 crore in FY17 from Rs 8.14 crore in the previous year. However, the hefty pay hike did not go well with some of the former board members and founders.
• Narayana Murthy shot a letter saying, "Giving nearly 60 per cent to 70 per cent increase in compensation for a top level person (even including performance-based variable pay) when the compensation for most of the employees in the company was increased by just 6 per cent to 8 per cent is, in my opinion, not proper."
• However, Murthy clarified that the letter was not targeted only at Pravin, he wrote: "I have lots of affection for Pravin. Let me state you the facts. I recruited Pravin in 1985 and had nurtured him throughout my stay at Infosys since then. He had been sidelined. He was not even a member of the Executive Council at Infosys in 2013 when I came back. Kris (Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder), Shibu (S D Shibulal, co-founder) and I encouraged him, elevated him to the board, and made him the COO when we recruited Vishal as the CEO. So, this abstention has nothing to do with Pravin."