Board of Directors of Infosys decided to Appoint K.V. Kamath as Chairman of Infosys

The Board of Directors of Infosys Ltd met on 30 April 2011 decided to appoint K.V. Kamath as Chairman of Infosys after N.R. Narayana Murthy, steps down from his position as Chairman on 20 August 2011. The appointment of Gopalakrishnan as co-Chairman of Infosys reflected the company’s desire to maintain continuity at the top of the company.

The company's Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director S. Gopalakrishnan was also appointed as co-Chairman of the board. Chief Operating Officer S.D. Shibulal will take over Mr. Gopalakrishnan's duties. All the appointments are to take effect from 21 August 2011. Founder of Infosys, Murthy was appointed Chairman Emeritus.

Kamath will oversee the process of identifying and grooming people to fill important roles either at the board level or at the level of the management council, the software services firm's next big decision-making body.

Kundapur Vaman Kamath served as the Non-Executive Chairman of ICICI Bank, the largest private bank in India. Kamath was ICICI Bank's Managing Director and CEO from 1 May 1996 until his retirement from executive responsibilities on 30 April 2009. Kamath's skills at pushing growth and getting his managers to capture market share are well known and ICICI Bank grew to become one of India's biggest banks during his tenure.

After graduating from IIM-A in 1971, Kamath started his career with ICICI after passing out of IIM-A in 1971. As part of his general management responsibilities he initiated and implemented ICICI's computerisation programme. Substantial investments in technology from the early years have resulted in systems that are today a competitive advantage for ICICI. His abilities helped expanding ICICI's businesses to evolve it into a technology-enabled financial organisation catering to the financial needs of corporate and retail customers.

Kamath joined the Asian Development Bank in 1988 in Manila in their Private Sector Department. He has principal work experience at ADB was in various projects in China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh and Vietnam.

He was honoured with several prestigious awards in the business world:
Businessman of the Year - Business India, 2005
Business Leader Award of the Year - The Economic Times, 2007
Businessman of the Year - Forbes Asia
Most e-savvy CEO amongst Asian banks - The Asian Banker Journal of Singapore
Finance Man of the Year award - The Mumbai Management Association
Best CEO for Innovative HR practices - World HRD Congress
Asian Business Leader of the Year - Asian Business Leader Award 2001 (CNBC Asia)
Outstanding Business Leader of the Year - CNBC TV-18, 2006
He received the Padma Bhushan award from the Indian government in 2008.