News Hour- Wipro replaces highest paid executive Martha Helena

BANGALORE: Wipro has replaced its highest paid executive Martha Helena Bejar with company veteran Pinaki Kar, who will now lead its US subsidiary Infocrossing, according to at least three people familiar with the developments.
Bejar, who was paid over Rs 5.5 crore last year in annual salary, joined Wipro in July 2009 to lead the company's global sales and operations. After Wipro started its restructuring exercise in 2011, she was appointed as the chairperson and CEO of Wipro Infocrossing and was also a member of Wipro's corporate executive council, the only woman at such a senior level in the company.
"The move is in line with the broader direction to consolidate Infocrossing as part of Wipro's global infrastructure management business," a senior executive at the company said on condition of anonymity. January 15 is the last working day for Bejar at Wipro, another person added, requesting anonymity.
Infocrossing will now be rolled into the larger global technology infrastructure management services division headed by Senior Vice-President Anand Sankaran, the third person added. A Wipro spokesperson said the company could not comment on the matter as it was in the mandatory silent period before it announces its third quarter results this month.
For now, Wipro has shelved its plans to sell Infocrossing as it has not been able to find a buyer. "It's a tough time to sell an asset like this, especially if the expectations are high," said another person familiar with Wipro's earlier plans to sell a part of Infocrossing.
Bejar joined Wipro from Microsoft Corp where she was corporate vice-president for the multi-billion dollar communications business. Before Microsoft, Bejar was the president of Caribbean and Latin America regions for telecommunications giant Nortel Network Corp with sales, operations and marketing responsibilities. 

The new head of Infocrossing, Kar is the current business head for the Gulf and Africa markets at Wipro. Kar has been with the company for over 12 years and was a part of the strategy and mergers and acquisitions team before taking over as the head of the Gulf and African regions.
Organisational rejig at Wipro in the past one year has claimed several senior executives. The company started its reorganisation by dismantling its joint CEO model in January 2011 and naming T K Kurien as the new CEO of the IT business. 
Until last year, the company was lagging peers like TCS and Cognizant in growth. Over the past few quarters, the new CEO Kurien has announced several changes aimed at making the company leaner and more agile. Analysts and industry watchers believe these changes were already reflecting in the company's performance after it reported better-than-expected results for the quarter ended September. 
Some of the new leaders who have come to the fore as part of this restructuring exercise are Bhanumurthy BM who now heads the newlyformed business operations unit, Ayan Mukerji who took over as head of the global media and telecom business unit, Sangita Singh who took over the healthcare and life sciences business and Manish Dugar who is now heading Wipro BPO as its CEO.
(Source- http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/)