Coming from a humble family based out of Baroda, Vishal Sikka is now responsible to reviving country's second largest software exporter, Infosys. Joining the company as the new Managing Director and CEO, Sikka comes at a time when the company is facing senior- level exists and fierce competition from its peers.
Born in an average Indian family in Baroda, Sikka was earlier responsible for leading a turnaround at technology giant SAP. Considered as one of the toughest assignments for the 47-year-old industry expert, Sikka takes charge of his new role in Infosys on August 1.
While commenting on his appointment, Sikka said, “I'm very happy and humbled to take this responsibility. I have always been amazed at how Infosys always put emphasis on education and learning.”
Born in a Punjabi family, Sikka studied in Rosary High School in Vadodara. He graduated in computer engineering from MS University, Vadodara. Sikka finished his bachelor of science in Computer Science from Syracuse University and his doctorate in artificial intelligence from Stanford University.
He worked at Xerox's research lab at Palo Alto and later started his first company, iBrain, with his brother, which was acquired by PatternRX, Inc. He later went on and started his second company Bodha.Com, which was bought by Peregrine Systems, where Sikka worked as Vice President for Platform Technologies after the acquisition.
From there, Sikka joined German enterprise solutions provider SAP in 2002 to head the advanced technology group, where he was responsible for strategic innovative projects. Five years later, he was named the first CTO of the company, reporting directly to the CEO, and was responsible for all SAP products and innovation.
Sikka is credited as the brain behind the game-changing HANA platform by SAP, which converges database and application platform capabilities in-memory to transform transactions and analytics, helping clients to derive meaningful conclusions out of mountains of data faster and at lower cost.
In addition, he led multiple initiatives to accelerate innovation and research at SAP, playing a key role in turning around the firm. While Sikka maintains that Infosys did not approach him while he was working with SAP, his sudden departure from the ERP solutions provider last month had sparked rumors that he was headed for the top job at the Bangalore-based firm.
Sikka will continue to be based out of California, where he stays with his wife and two children. Sikka is excited and confident. “To me, there is no doubt that an incredible journey is in front of us. With fellow Infocians we can take Infosys to an incredible height,” he said. He added that over the next a few weeks, he will engage with clients and employees to inspire them about the “great opportunity” ahead.