The Joint CEOs and the two of the most highly-paid employees in Wipro, Mr Girish Paranjpe and Mr Suresh Vaswani, displayed strikingly different emotions as they spoke on their high-profile end to a two-decade journey at the IT major.

It was a poignant moment for Mr Paranjpe. “It is difficult to make a choice at such short a notice. For 20 years, there was no need to think of anything other than Wipro and this is the first time I have had to think of a life beyond the company,” said Mr Paranjpe, adding that perhaps he would catch up with a matinee show this week.

The 52-year-old Mr Paranjpe, who has been with Wipro since 1990, has also served as President of Finance Solutions at Wipro Technologies, besides having a short stint in Wipro's consumer care business. He was responsible for setting up the financial services vertical for the company and it now contributes to about 27 per cent of the total revenues.

Mr Vaswani is looking forward to “chill out” for some time before he starts the next phase in his career. “It was a spectacular career spanning 25 years. I got good energy from people who worked with me and am looking forward to the next 15 years of my career,” said an extremely charged Mr Vaswani, who has served Wipro as the Chief Executive of Wipro-Acer joint venture and also as the President of Wipro Infotech in his earlier roles.

On exiting the company after 20 years, Mr Vaswani likened it to flying off from the nest, but said “it is a splendid world out there with lot of exciting things to do.”

Mr Paranjpe said a lot of people are talking to him and “hopefully that will throw up some ideas. I am open to anything and not hung up on IT.”

Mr Azim Premji, Chairman of the company said replacing the duo was a tough decision to make but that it was done for strategy reasons.

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