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V. Balakrishnan, the former CFO of Infosys, who has announced his resignation from the company, was known to joke about the fact that he runs the largest privately owned fund in India (Infosys has around $4 billion in cash and related assets).
Ironic as it may seem, he will be starting a multi-million dollar private equity fund that will focus on nurturing entrepreneurs’ dreams in India, albeit not from the spacious second floor office that overlooks trees and the snarling traffic in Electronic City. He plans to start a private equity fund with two others.
Bala told a television channel that he had been contemplating this move for the last one year and finally made a decision at the end of this year.
Calls and SMSes sent to Bala went unanswered.
A former Infoscion, who is now working for a leading healthcare group in India, told Business Line that unlike other flashy executives in the company, his feet were firmly grounded and this helped him grow within the company.
Always, one with a keen sense of humour, he was once nicknamed Nostradamus by Bank of America executives for predicting the demise of Bear Sterns, according to this executive.
Key role As a protégé of T.V. Mohandas Pai, another former CFO, Bala quickly rose up the ranks after joining Infosys in 1991 and served in various capacities in the company’s finance department.
He played a key role in the company’s Indian IPO in 1993 as well as Infosys’ first overseas listing in 1999 and also closely supervised the three sponsored secondary offerings by Infosys, including two public offerings.
He was instrumental in shifting the company’s Nasdaq-listed American Depositary Shares (ADS) to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and also trade on NYSE, Euronext’s Paris and London markets, according to officials in the company.
Bala won several accolades. He was voted the best CFO by Finance Asia in its Asia’s Best Companies Poll for three years – 2008, 2009 and 2011. On the personal side Bala loved his iPad.
> venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in
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