Surya Kant, who has been at the helm of TCS North America and has spent 43 years at TCS, retires at the end of the fiscal year.
IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has made changes to its leadership roles in North America.
As part of the changes Suresh Muthuswami has been elevated to the role of chairman, North America, said sources in the know.
This is one of the most significant leadership changes the company has announced for the region.
The reason for the changes in the North American region, the largest in terms of revenue for TCS, is because Surya Kant who has been at the helm of North America for the past 16 years is stepping down by the end of the fiscal year, as he retires.
The leadership changes are of significance as the US is the largest region in terms of revenue contribution.
For the financial year 2021, US contribution to the company revenue was 49.7 per cent.
Other than being an old-hand at TCS Surya Kant has been responsible for growing TCS’ revenue from North America from $1 billion to $12.5 billion over the last 16 years.
He has worn several hats including establishing TCS’ presence in Japan in 1987.
He has spent close to 43 years with the company.
When contacted TCS confirmed the appointments and in an email statement said: "Surya Kant (Sury) has been an integral part of TCS for the last four decades as a leader in many geographies and currently services as chairman, TCS North America.
"Having spent over 43 years in TCS, he will be retiring at the end of this financial year.
"Suresh Muthuswami will take over as chairman, TCS North America from 1st April 2022, Amit Bajaj will assume the role of president, TCS North America, and R Vivekanand will head the BFSI platforms business.
We would like to thank Sury for his tremendous contributions to building TCS and wishing him the very best in whatever he does.”
Muthuswami who takes over from Surya Kant has been heading the BFSI Platform business.
Prior to this role he was leading the insurance and healthcare industry verticals and developed client relationships in regions like India, UK and South Africa.
In his new role, Muthuswami will oversee governance of all corporate functions and corporate affairs in the North America region and will report to Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO and MD, TCS.
As part of the rejig, Amit Bajaj will be taking over the role of President, TCS North America.
Bajaj will be responsible for sales and marketing.
He has been with the company for 24 years and has been in various leadership roles in European geography.
R Vivekanand who is at present co-head TCS financial solutions (FS) will head BFSI platforms business.
With this appointment the BFSI platform business and insurance product business of TCS FS will be merged into one unit called TCS Life and Pension and Retirement services globally and will report to N G Subramaniam, COO, TCS.
Under the leadership of Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO and MD TCS, this will be one of the most significant changes in a region. In terms of changes to the organisation's structure, prior to this, in 2018, Gopinthan had divided the 50 industry services units further into 150 units.
One of the biggest recast that the company had done was when the company created Business and Technology Services unit (BNTS) which brought all the service lines under this unit and which is headed by Krishnan Ramanujam.
Analysts tracking the company believe that as Gopinathan enters the next five years of his career, getting the right people to head business units will be crucial as it looks for scaling up its business.
“Looking at the market condition and how technology is evolving, the company will need to create a leadership rank and order that can capitalize on this, N Chandrasekaran did this well when he took over and those leaders are still there.
"I think we will see more such changes in the coming times,” said an analyst on condition of anonymity.
