BENGALURU: Rajeev Mehta, who will step down as the president of Cognizant on April 1, may additionally be part of L&T at a time while the latter has set up an unsolicited bid to collect Mindtree, human beings directly aware of the problem said.
Mehta will be an adviser to Cognizant’s new CEO, Brian Humphries, until May 1, introduced earlier as a part of his exit plan. Mehta is expected to assist the $18-billion construction and engineering conglomerate in charting a competitive increase for IT services gadgets – L&T Infotech, L&T Technology Services, and Mindtree if the purchase bid succeeds. He is likely to spearhead the combined operations when L&T
merges these units ultimately, assets stated. Mehta emerged as the top contender after L&T undertook an exhaustive leadership mapping workout to pick out the brand new face to persuade the commercial enterprise they brought. Calls and emails to Mehta remained unanswered when going to press. Queries to L&T did not elicit any response.
A -decade-antique Cognizant veteran, Mehta became a key discern in former CEO Francisco D’souza’s center team, which scripted the 2020 strategy. He joined the business enterprise when it became slightly $25 million and was part of the long boom rally to $sixteen billion. Mehta was appointed president of the organization in 2016, changing his predecessor Gordon Coburn, who resigned after Cognizant disclosed violations of the America Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
Phil Fersht, CEO of US-primarily based HFS Research, said, “Mehta had lived the entire Cognizant growth tale over many years and became extensively tipped to take over from D’Souza when he stepped apart. He turned into regarded internally as “Frank’s right-hand bulldog” — a toughie, an enforcer, a doer. He has verified operational leadership capability (important for what LTI/Mindtree desires) and is used tackling the shift from $2 billion to over $10 billion,” he stated.
Ten days ago, L&T obtained the most important shareholder, V G Siddhartha’s 20% stake in Mindtree, pitting the four founders in public combat in opposition to the previous. L&T has additionally located an order with agents to pick up any other 15% of the organization’s stocks from the marketplace. Also, it has announced an open provide for 31% of shares. If a hit, the cumulative deal for a sixty-six % stake will value L&T nearly Rs eleven,000 crores, or $1.6 billion.
Mehta, who nursed CEO objectives, became given a widespread increase in his repayment remaining yr, which predicted he could stay within the corporation. He got a cash bonus of $1.3 million and constrained stock devices of $nine million. In 2017, Mehta’s goal cash incentive became $535,000, double what former CEO Francisco D’Souza obtained that year.
First argued that Mehta might be a top-notch choice to guide the merged entity because of his exquisite connections, revel in, and dedication to ram those two together. “With the mid-caps like Mphasis, Virtusa, and Genpact all doing nicely, there is clear evidence that this merger could be successful. However, it needs very robust management. Raj Mehta has to be equipped for a situation he is tailored for!” he brought.
