Eight Years at Infosys: Salil Parekh and the Handover Already Scheduled for 2027

From Capgemini to Infosys Leadership

Salil Parekh studied aeronautical engineering at IIT Bombay and completed a Master of Engineering at Cornell University. He started in consulting at Ernst & Young, whose consulting arm was merged into Capgemini, which he joined in 2000. He became a member of its group management board and, in March 2015, deputy CEO and a member of the group executive board, overseeing a cluster that included application services and cloud infrastructure services.

He became CEO and managing director of Infosys on 2 January 2018, succeeding interim CEO U. B. Pravin Rao. In 2019 an Infosys board member received anonymous whistleblower complaints that also accused Parekh of unethical practices. The Audit Committee, with independent counsel and PwC, concluded the allegations were "substantially without merit."

Q1 FY27 Results and the AI Inflection

On 23 July 2026, YourStory reported that Infosys's net profit for the first quarter of FY27 was Rs 7,769 crore, up about 12.2% from Rs 6,921 crore a year earlier, on revenue of Rs 48,211 crore, up 14%. The company trimmed its FY27 revenue growth guidance to 1.5-3%, from 1.5-3.5%.

On AI, the report said AI services made up 8% of total revenue, up from 5.5% in the third quarter of FY26, and were growing at double-digit rates, though the company said AI revenue could see ups and downs. Large deal wins totalled US$3.6 billion, 61% of them net new. Headcount at the end of the quarter was 328,062, down 532 from the previous quarter and up 4,274 on the year. Parekh was quoted as saying: "AI momentum is now rapidly converting into revenue," and "Strong large deal wins, powered by Infosys Topaz, reinforce client confidence."

“AI momentum is now rapidly converting into revenue.”

The April 2027 Handover to Ashiss Kumar Dash

On the same day, Infosys announced that Ashiss Kumar Dash would become managing director and CEO on 1 April 2027. Dash has spent more than three decades with the company, holds a chemical-engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and is currently an executive vice president heading a group of businesses that includes services, utilities, resources, energy and enterprise sustainability. Chairman Nandan Nilekani said: "It gives me great pleasure that we have an internal leader as our next CEO." The board said it needed a leader who could combine strategic and commercial skill with delivery experience to lead through an AI-led transformation. The reports did not say what Parekh will do after he steps down.

What Leaders Can Learn From the Transition

What readers can take from the profile: 1. Pair guidance with honesty. Trimming a forecast, while reporting strong deal wins, shows a willingness to give investors the less comfortable number. 2. Treat AI as a line of revenue. Reporting AI services as a share of revenue gives customers and staff something to track. 3. Plan the succession in public. A date, a name and a reason reduce uncertainty. 4. Expect volatility. The company itself said AI revenue may not grow in a straight line.

For Indian IT suppliers and talent: Infosys's headcount has been broadly flat in recent quarters, even as revenue grows. For MSMEs that supply services around IT campuses in Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and for graduates, that is a signal that growth may rely less on adding people.

Assessing an Eight-Year Tenure Ending on a Known Date

Judging a technology chief executive is harder than it looks, because the industry moves in cycles that no single leader controls. Eight years in the role included a pandemic-era boom, a slowdown in client spending and now the arrival of generative AI, each of which changed what customers asked for. A fair assessment looks at how the company responded to each shift rather than at any one year's growth rate.

Counting AI services as a distinct share of revenue is a statement of intent, and the 8% figure gives staff and clients a measurable marker. Announcing a successor nearly nine months in advance gives clients, employees and investors a long runway. It also tests the outgoing leader, who has to remain effective while the new leader prepares. That is a hard balance, and how the two handle it between now and April 2027 will say as much about Infosys as the quarterly numbers do.

Independent editorial profile built from public reporting. We have not interviewed Mr Parekh.