Senapathy Kris Gopalkrishnan Biography

Senapathy Kris Gopalkrishnan Factsheet
Name	Senapathy Kris Gopalkrishnan
Born in	5th April 1955
Place of Birth	Trivandrum, Kerala, India
Education	M.Tech from IIT, Madras
Works for	Infosys Technologies Limited
Position	Executive Vice Chairman
Valued at	$1.35 billion
Wife	Sudha
Children	Daughter Meghna

Personal Background of Senapathy Kris Gopalkrishnan

Kris studied in a government school, named Model School in Thycaud, Trivandrum. He had particular interest in the science subject, and wished to pursue higher education in engineering. His parents did not interfere or influence his decisions, but they particularly tried to convince him to take up medicine. Succumbing to their wishes, Kris started preparing for medical examination. But fate had other plans for him. He failed to occupy a seat in the examination, by a mere 2 marks. He was so sure of his success, that he had neither thought of , nor prepared for any alternative other than medical.


This incident put further stop to his parent's interference in his decisions. Yet failing to apply for engineering colleges, he signed up for B.sc course in physics at a local college as his last resort. He drew out huge amount of confidence from his teacher, C.C Phillips, who also helped him fix his math and clear the Indian Institute of Management entrance examination.

Yet again, lack of proper English failed him to clear the interview. “The IIM experience taught me how important communication is,” Kris says. Learning from his past experience, this time he had kept an alternative in the form of M. Tech course in Computer Science from IIT Madras. He learnt to write his own programme at Madras campus' then state-of-the-art IBM 370 mainframe computer.

Senapathy kris Gopalkrishnan, is a firm believer in change. He feels one has to accept change, and move on with it, making the best out of situation. After four years as the head, he still has many challenges to face and expectations to meet.



Senapathy Kris Gopalkrishnan's Career

• Subsequently, Kris was called upon by Narendra Patni, the founder of Patni Computer Systems, to work with him. He worked at the post of a Software Engineer in 1979 and rose to the position of Assistant Project Manager in 1981. The experience he gained by working for PCS brought him to Infosys.
• In 1981, Gopalkrishnan co-founded Infosys Technologies Limited with six people, including N.R Narayan Murthy.
• Initially, he handled design management, development, implementation and support of information systems for clients in the consumer products industry in the US.
Following is his journey to the top, over the years:
• 1987-1994 he headed the technical operations of KSA/Infosys (a joint venture between Infosys and KSA at Atlanta, USA) as Vice President (Technical).
• From 1994 to 1996, he served as the Head of Technical Support Services of Infosys Technologies.
• 1996 to 1999, he served as Infosys Technologies Ltd.'s Head of Customer Service and Technology.
• Mr. Gopalakrishnan served as a Deputy Managing Director and Head of Client Delivery and Technology of Infosys Technologies Ltd. from 1999 to 2002.
• He was a Partner of Price waterhouse Coopers LLP until January 2009.
• Served as the Chief Operating Officer of Infosys Technologies Ltd. until June 21, 2007 and its Joint Managing Director from August 21, 2006 to June 21, 2007.
• He has served as President of Infosys Technologies Ltd. since August 21, 2006.
• Co-Chairman since June 2011, Gopalakrishnan serves as Head of the Executive Council at Infosys Technologies Ltd, along with Vice President of Confederation of Indian Industry.
• He served as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Infosys Technologies Limited from June 22, 2007 to June 2011.



Problems faced by Senapathy Kris Gopalkrishnan

• As soon as he started his term, handed down by Nandan Nilekani, he faced the 2008 global financial crisis.
• His international customers reduced their expenditure on IT due to it.
• Subsequently, he faced a global slowdown of:
  1. unprecedented proportion
  2. wild currency fluctuations
  3. hurried gait from mega deals
  4. Tremendous pressure exerted out by clients, along with MNC competitors pushing hard and hitting back in the market.
Yet, Gopalakrishnan managed to deliver an outstanding September quarter in 2010, enabling revenue growth sequentially by 12% and net profit by 17%.



Awards and Acheivements of Senapathy Kris Gopalkrishnan

Gopalkrishnan is the recipient of many awards and honors, such as:
• Chairmanship of the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (IIITM), Kerala.
• Vice Chairmanship of the Board for Information Technology Education Standards (BITES) set up by the Government of Karnataka.
• He is also the Vice Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industries(CII) Southern Regional Council.
• Member of ACM, IEEE and IEEE Computer Society.
• He was awarded the nation's highest civilian award, this year-Padma Bhushan.
• He works out a salary of $100,000 USD from Infosys.
• He donates $1 million annually towards various causes such as providing scholarships to poor students and research on diseases such as
• Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia.
• Kris Gopalakrishnan is a compulsive technophile. He changes his mobile every month, and wishes to do the same about his laptop, but then restrains himself from luxury expenditure made out of the company money. This reflects his characteristic Infosys-ian caution and sincerity.



Infosys Technologies Ltd. -Company Profile

• Infosys Technologies Limited is a global IT service providing firm.
• It is the second largest IT company in India.
• It offers software products to banking industry and also provides end-to-end business solutions, through business process management services.
• Gopalkrishnan took over Infosys in June 2007 from Nandan Nilekani, a co-founder.
• At that time, Infosys employed 70,000 people and earned $3 billion as revenue.
• A man interested in the nitty-gritties of execution, Gopalkrishnan has headed the company for four years now, and has done well.
• He has managed to double the revenue, under his leadership.
• He has added 60,000 new employees to the company.


Last Updated on 06/08/2015