Services giant Cognizant hires former Infosys VP Ravi Kumar as CEO

The former Infosys president brings 20 plus years’ experience in consulting, process, and technology transformation

IT services and consulting provider Cognizant has named Ravi Kumar S as its CEO and a member of the board, effective immediately.

Kumar succeeds Brian Humphries in both roles, who will remain with the company as a special advisor until March 15.

The new chief exec joins Cognizant after a 20-year career at Infosys, where he held various leadership roles, most recently serving as president from January 2016 through October 2022.

In this role, he led the Infosys Global Services Organisation across all global industry segments, driving digital transformation services, consulting services, technology services, engineering services, data & analytics, cloud and infrastructure, and enterprise package applications service lines.

At the same time Cognizant has announced that Stephen J. Rohleder, a member of the board since March 2022, has been elected as its chair.

Former board chair Michael Patsalos-Fox will remain as an independent director.

"The board is focused on positioning Cognizant to reaccelerate growth and drive shareholder value," said Rohleder.

"As a proven leader with deep experience developing global talent and building a culture of success, we believe Ravi is the right person to take Cognizant into its next phase of growth.

"He brings world-class expertise in consulting, process, and technology transformation as well as demonstrated success building businesses.

"We are highly confident he can build on Cognizant's portfolio of in-demand solutions, strong brand, and significant international expansion opportunity to unlock enhanced performance and growth."

Cognizant updates earnings forecast

For 2022, Cognizant is expecting Q4 and full-year revenue of approximately $4.8bn and $19.4bn, respectively, compared to prior expectations of $4.72-$4.77bn for the fourth quarter and $19.3bn for the full year.

The group said this reflects a year on year increase of approximately 1.3 per cent for Q4 and growth of approximately five per cent for FY22.