Ravi Kumar replaces Brian Humphries as Cognizant CEO

Global tech major Cognizant has appointed Ravi Kumar Singisetti, also referred to as Ravi Kumar S, as the chief executive officer and a member of the board with immediate effect.

Cognizant had previously announced that Kumar would join the company as president, Cognizant Americas. In connection with his CEO transition, Cognizant said Surya Gummadi has been named president, Cognizant Americas. Gummadi, a 24-year veteran of Cognizant, had held the role on an interim basis since July 2022 and previously served as SVP of Cognizant’s health sciences business segment.

Kumar, who is an Infosys veteran, succeeded Brian Humphries. The Teaneck-based IT major, in a stock exchange filing, said he held various leadership roles during his 20-year long career at Infosys, most recently serving as president from January 2016 through October 2022.

Kumar led "the Infosys Global Services Organisation across all global industry segments, driving digital transformation services, consulting services, technology services, engineering services, data & analytics, cloud and infrastructure, and enterprise package applications service lines".

Before Infosys, Kumar worked in positions of increasing authority at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cambridge Tech Partners, Oracle Corporation and Sapient. He is also a member of the board of directors of Digimarc Corporation and TransUnion. Upon his appointment, Kumar said in a statement: "I am honoured to join Cognizant, a company I have long admired for its dedicated client focus and its track record of innovation."

A bachelor’s degree holder in engineering from Shivaji University and an M.B.A. from Xavier Institute of Management, India, Kumar will be entitled to an annual base salary of $1,000,000; annual cash incentive compensation with a target of 200% of his annual base salary as per the terms of the company’s annual cash incentive compensation plan; and annual equity awards with a target grant-date value of $11,500,000, of which $4,600,000 will be time-based restricted stock units, vesting over a three-year period and $6,900,000 will be performance-based restricted stock units (PSUs).

In addition, he'll also be entitled to receive one-time awards -- PSUs with a target value of $3,000,000, and a payout range from 0% to 250% of the target measured over a four-year performance cycle; an equity award consisting of restricted stock units, with a grant date value of $5,000,000, vesting in substantially equal quarterly instalments over a year after his start date and a cash sign-on bonus of $750,000.

Kumar will also get a stockholder return, measured as a compound annual growth rate, of the company’s common stock over the four years, starting on January 12, 2023. Kumar will have to hold all shares of common stock received upon vesting of the buyout award for four years after his start date.

Notably, Humphries agreed to step down as a member of the board of directors from January 12, 2023. To facilitate the transition, Humphries is expected to remain with the company as a special advisor until March 15, 2023.

Cognizant also announced that Stephen J. Rohleder, a member of Cognizant’s board since March 2022, has been elected as the board chair. Former chair Michael Patsalos-Fox will also remain on the board as an independent director. The company says "Rohleder brings decades of experience overseeing operations, developing strategy, counselling clients, and growing teams in the technology space, gained from his 35-year tenure in senior roles with Accenture, where he served as group chief executive, north

America, group chief executive, health and public service and chief operating officer, as well as his roles as chairman and CEO of GTY Technology Holdings".