A senior Wipro Ltd executive overseeing a third of the company’s business has resigned to become chief executive of a US-based fintech firm, marking another high-profile exit from India’s fourth-largest IT services company.
Srini Rajamani, who joined Wipro in 2005 and rose to lead its life sciences and consumer businesses, is set to take the helm at Opus Technologies, a Georgia-based fintech specializing in card management systems and payment gateways. With a global workforce of about 800 employees, Opus operates offices in Pune and Hyderabad, alongside locations in the UK, the US, and Canada.
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In a phone interview with Mint late Sunday, Rajamani confirmed his decision to step down after nearly two decades with Wipro. His last day at the Bengaluru-based software giant is Monday.
Moving to nimbler waters
Rajamani attributed his move to the appeal of smaller, specialized firms.
“Today, clients of IT services companies want to be in the top five accounts and not the 25 largest accounts of a software service provider,” he said. “Customers prefer to work with companies that are razor-focused, and Opus excels in the fintech domain with deep expertise in payments solutions.”
Wipro, which generated $10.8 billion in revenue last year, derived about 18.8%—or $2 billion—from its consumer business and 13.2%—or $1.4 billion—from healthcare clients. While overall revenue declined 2.2% year-on-year, healthcare posted 8.5% growth, offset by a 4.2% dip in the consumer business.
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Rajamani’s departure marks yet another exit since Wipro appointed veteran Srinivas Pallia as the company’s chief executive in April last year. His exit follows that of Laura Langdon, who stepped down as Wipro’s chief marketing officer in December and was replaced by Ranjita Ghosh. Leadership churn at India’s fourth-largest IT services company is far from new.
Despite Pallia’s preference for promoting internal candidates to top roles, the company has seen significant turnover. Over the past two years, at least 30 senior executives at the level of senior vice-president and above have exited, driven either by better opportunities or limited growth prospects under former chief executive Thierry Delaporte.
Rajamani’s move to a smaller firm is not unprecedented either. Rajan Kohli, who led Wipro’s digital and consulting business during his 28-year tenure, left in August 2023 to become the head of CitiusTech, a Mumbai-based medtech company.
During his tenure, Rajamani helped Wipro secure a five-year, $500 million contract with New York-based cosmetics giant Estée Lauder in 2021.
Wipro has yet to comment on his exit. An email sent to the company on Monday remained unanswered.
IT exodus
The trend extends beyond Wipro.
At Tech Mahindra Ltd, long-time CEO CP Gurnani co-founded the AI startup AIonOS in Singapore last April, while Jagdish Mitra, another Tech Mahindra veteran, launched Humanize, a Bengaluru-based AI startup.
“This migration is driven by several factors,” said Ritu Sethi, partner for technology, outsourcing, and offshoring at ABC Consultants, a New Delhi-based executive search firm. “(The most prominent being) the desire to create and build an organization of their own on a blank canvas, the opportunity to drive faster and more visible changes while directly impacting stakeholders, and the financial incentives, including substantial equity and a direct stake in the firm.”
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Sethi also pointed to the hierarchical structure of large organizations, where climbing to C-suite roles often requires years of waiting, as another driver.
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