Indian IT sees CFO churn, some join rivals – Times of India

BENGALURU: The Indian IT sector has witnessed a quick succession of high-profile CFO transitions in less than a year. Some of these executives have joined rival companies, highlighting the unenforceability of non-compete restrictions against employees in India.
At Cognizant, Jatin Dalal, former Wipro CFO, succeeded Jan Siegmund, who retired earlier this year.Wipro had sought Rs 25 crore from Dalal for breach of contract after he joined Cognizant as CFO immediately after leaving Wipro in November last year. However, Cognizant has paid Rs 4 crore to its CFO Dalal, to settle the lawsuit and related arbitration with his former employer, Wipro.
At Wipro, Aparna Iyer replaced Dalal, who has been with the company since 2003 and held various leadership roles, including internal audit, business finance, financial planning & analytics, corporate treasury, and investor relations.

LTIMindtree has appointed Vipul Chandra, who previously managed the treasury at the parent company Larsen & Toubro, as its new CFO. Its former CFO Vinit Teredesai has joined Persistent Systems as CFO. Vikram Shroff, partner-employment law in law firm AZB, said that it is still common to include non-compete and other restrictive covenants in standard employment contracts, particularly in the Indian technology sector.
“Through these clauses, employers seek to ensure that not just its information but also that of its customers remain protected, during and after the end of employment. Employers remain sensitive to outgoing employees using such information against the company’s business interests.”
Former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai stated that when companies promote existing employees to top finance positions, it demonstrates a strong bench and a planned succession strategy. However, he added, “When an external person is brought in as CEO, obviously, there is a lack of talent within the company. With that being the case, a CFO from the market is not surprising.”
HCLTech elevated Shiv Walia as its new CFO, replacing Prateek Aggarwal, who has stepped down to pursue opportunities outside the company, Mphasis has hired Aravind Viswanathan from Tanla Platforms after Manish Dugar recently resigned from his position.
Shriram Subramanian, founder and managing director of the proxy advisory firm InGovern Research Services, pointed out that only appointments of executive directors, and not CFOs, are put to shareholder approval. “However, firms are willing to pay higher compensation for CFO roles as many of these companies have doubled in size in the past 5 years,” he said.