Infosys board terms past differences with Narayana Murthy ‘unfortunate’

Bengaluru: The board of Infosys on Friday termed as “unfortunate” the past differences with founder NR Narayana Murthy and said it never intended to cause him “personal distress or anguish”.

Addressing a press conference after the board meeting, newly appointed Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani said,“The board is focused on bringing complete stability to the company and that it has tasked its committee of directors to work with the CEO and management to refresh the company’s strategy by October.”

He said his goal is to build consensus, bring stability to the company and that he represents 100% of the shareholders. He further said that he has “record of doing things in different environments”.

The company said in a statement, read out by Nilekani, that the board is focused on the future, consistent with the commitment to good governance. Nilekani “will get a full briefing” on investigations into alleged wrongdoing in $200 million buyout of Panaya, the company said. It added that “appropriate course of action will be decided” but did not offer details.

“In recent days there has been considerable discussion of the relationship between the board of directors of Infosys and NR Narayana Murthy who established the culture and ethos of Infosys, especially its culture of adhering to high corporate governance standards,” it said.

The board described various differences of opinion with Murthy in the past as “unfortunate” and said it did not intend to cause anguish to Murthy. “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 Infosys statement said.

On the whistleblower charges, Infosys noted that it had authorised probes into anonymous allegations regarding the conduct of prior management, and asserted that the investigations concluded that there was no wrongdoing.

“As the board has stated on numerous occasions, it takes the company’s reputation for high corporate governance standards with the utmost seriousness,” Infosys said committing itself to broad-based shareholder consultations in adhering to such lofty standards.

Offering an update on the CEO hunt, the statement said that 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.

Additionally, it said that the same committee will deliberate on the “long term governance structure” of the board and come out with its recommendations in October. The board announced the appointment of DN Prahlad as the chairman of Edgeverve Ltd with immediate effect.