Wipro shares gain 1% after Co appoints Thierry Delaporte as new CEO and MD

Delaporte was most recently the chief operating officer of French consulting and technology firm Capgemini Group.

Shares of IT major Wipro gained over 1 per cent on the BSE on Friday after it announced Thierry Delaporte as the new chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) of the company, replacing Abidali Neemuchwala. Delaporte was most recently the chief operating officer of French consulting and technology firm Capgemini Group.

At 09:50 am, the stock was trading 1.46 per cent higher at Rs 202 apiece on the BSE. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was trading nearly a per cent lower at 31,901 levels. Wipro had hit a 52-week high of Rs 301.55 on June 14, 2019, whereas its 52-week low level stands at Rs 159.60, hit on March 19 this year.

"l am delighted to welcome Thierry as CEO and Managing Director of the company. Thierry has an exceptional leadership track record, strong international exposure, deep strategic expertise, a unique ability to forge long-standing client relationships, and proven experience of driving transformation and managing technological disruption. We believe that Thierry is the right person to lead Wipro in its next phase of growth," said Rishad Premji, Chairman, Wipro Limited. READ MORE HERE

Delaporte will be based in Paris and report to Chairman Rishad Premji. He has a Bachelor's degree in Economy and Finance from Sciences Po Paris and a Masters in Law from Sorbonne University.

Wipro had said in January that Neemuchwala had decided to step down due to family commitments. According to an earlier report, the company had been evaluating a few external candidates and at least two internal aspirants for its top post after incumbent Abidali Neemuchwala announced his exit.

According to sources in the know, some of external candidates being considered for the post of chief executive officer (CEO) included Bhaskar Ghosh of Accenture, Ritesh Idnani of Tech Mahindra (TechM), Ravi Kumar S of Infosys, and Nitin Rakesh of Mphasis, among others. READ ABOUT IT HERE

The appointment of Thierry Delaporte will be very positive for Wipro. It will certainly remove the uncertainties around the company. Given that he has around 25 years of experience and sound knowledge of the domain, we believe Delaporte has the capability to turn around Wipro, says AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital.

"Wipro, unlike its peers TCS and Infosys, has been unable to migrate to the digital platform, viz Cloud services, Internet of Things (IOT), among others. The company has not been able to shift its base from outsourcing to other verticals. Hence, Thierry's entry will give Wipro a better business and there will be a lot of stability from the employees' point of view as well," Prabhakar added.