Saturday June 23, 02:49 AM
Kris Gopalakrishnan takes over at Infosys
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By Corporate Bureau
Amidst growing concern over rupee appreciating against the US dollar, S (Kris) Gopalakrishnan formally took charge as the chief executive officer of the $3 billion IT bellwether Infosys Technologies from 51-year-old Nandan Nilekani here on Friday. Gopalakrishnan's appointment as the CEO for the next five years was ratified at the 26th annual general meeting (AGM) of the company here. After taking over as the CEO, 51-year-old Gopalakrishnan said that the company in the short-term has taken measures like hedging to mitigate the impact of the rise in rupee. "In the medium and long-term we have to have a services mix, geographical mix, increase revenue and work productivity. We have to work better and smarter," he told the shareholders. "A 1% rise in rupee impacts the operating margins by 50 basis points," Nilekani said about the currency volatility. For the financial year-ended March 31, 2007, Infosys had 63% of its revenue coming from North America and 26% from Europe. Earlier, speaking on his five-year tenure at the helm (2002-07), Nilekani, who moved on as the co-chairman of the company, said the company had an annual compounded annual growth rate of 41% (2002-07) and had moved on from being over 10,000-employee company to over 72,000 professionals. "In spite of a lot of risks like the post-bubble year, 9/11 and SARS in Asia, we have been able to show 41% CAGR and have grown our revenue from $0.5 billion to $3 billion. We have also been able to dramatically scale up our client base and have managed to build deep relationships with the top management including the CEOs and CFOs of our clients," he said. Nilekani also said that the company currently gets 43% of its revenue from new services like consulting, BPO, infrastructure, validation and testing etc that were introduced in the last five years. "Going forward, Infosys is very well placed to take on the challenges ahead through new services, by using intellectual property and increasing revenue productivity. I am absolutely confident that we will grow," he added. S D Shibulal also took charge as the chief operating officer. "These transitions reinforce the efficacy of our long-term succession planning," co-chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy said. Shares of Infosys closed at Rs 1950.80 on the National Stock Exchange on Friday, down 0.39% from Thursday's close.
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