Mindtree Names Debashis Chatterjee As New CEO, L&T’s SN Subrahmanyan Is Non-Executive Vice-Chairman

Debashis Chatterjee was named chief executive officer and managing director of Mindtree Ltd. after his predecessor quit following Larsen & Toubro Ltd.’s hostile takeover of the mid-sized information technology firm.

Chatterjee, previously the president of global deliveries and the global leader for digital systems and technology practices at Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., has been appointed as Mindtree CEO for five years, according to the company’s exchange filing. The board also named SN Subrahmanyan, CEO and MD at L&T, as the non-executive vice-chairman.

Chatterjee replaces Rostow Ravanan, who quit on July 5 along with then Chairman Krishnakumar Natarajan and former vice-chairman Parasarthy NS. Their exits came after India’s largest construction and engineering conglomerate took control of Bengaluru-based Mindtree by buying 20.32 percent from the late VG Siddhartha and his Coffee Day Group, and then shored up holding by acquiring shares from the open market and then in an open offer. L&T now has 60.06 percent stake in the IT firm.

The change of leadership caps the months-long hostile takeover drama that saw Mindtree’s founders resist L&T’s bid by trying to rallying support from Nalanda Capital. The Singapore-based investor, however, eventually tendered its holding in the L&T open offer.

In June, L&T secured three board positions at Mindtree—bringing in Subrahmanyan along with Jayant Damodar Patil and Ramamurthi Shankar Raman. Their appointments came into effect on July 16.