Who is Ravi Kumar, the newly appointed CEO of Cognizant?

Cognizant on January 12 has appointed former Infosys president Ravi Kumar as its new chief executive officer, effective immediately. Ravi Kumar succeeds outgoing CEO Brian Humphries, who departs on March 15 but will stay with the company as special advisor.

It was previously reported that Cognizant’s underperformance warranted action from the board and that a change in leadership was needed. Soon after Ravi Kumar joined the Nasdaq-listed IT services company that was founded more than a decade after Infosys.

Kumar started his career as a nuclear scientist at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center. He had recently relinquished his role at Infosys, where he had a 20-year career and held various leadership roles. The industry veteran most recently served as president of Infosys from January 2016 to October 2022, after which he left the IT firm.

In 2017, he had been appointed as the deputy chief operating officer (COO) of Infosys and was widely. Before Infosys later did away with the post of the COO in 2021, Ravi was tipped to be the company's next COO.

Before his appointment as CEO, Kumar was to join Cognizant on January 16 as President of Cognizant Americas, a role which will now go to 24-year Cognizant veteran Surya Gummadi.

Under his leadership, Infosys unveiled Metaverse Foundry, where it developed over 100 use cases to help clients navigate this new and ground-breaking technology. During his time with Infosys, Kumar oversaw Infosys' business operations in India, Latin America, Japan, and China. He also led the Infosys Public Services and Infosys Consulting Services subsidiaries.

Kumar earned his bachelor's degree in engineering from Shivaji University and his Master’s in Business Administration from Xavier Institute of Management, India.

Kumar, who will also become a member of the Board at Cognizant, currently serves on the boards of directors of TransUnion, and Digimarc Corporation. He also serves on the board of governors of the New York Academy of Sciences and the Board of Directors of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.