Cognizant India appoints Rajesh Nambiar as chairman and managing director

Rajesh Nambiar, an industry veteran with over three decades of experience, is set to take over the position of chairman and managing director of IT services firm Cognizant from November 9. 

He will also serve as a member of the Teaneck, New Jersey-based company’s executive committee, a statement said.

“Cognizant’s technology and delivery capabilities in India provide an immense competitive advantage to the company and its clients,” Nambiar said in the statement. “My priority is to build upon Cognizant’s rich legacy of innovation, industry leadership and client-centric employee culture to help the company engineer modern businesses that improve everyday life.”

Joining from Hanover, Maryland-based telecom software services provider Ciena Corporation, where he is currently the president and chairman of the India unit, Nambiar will succeed Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, who resigned from Cognizant in July.

He brings with him extensive general management, commercial and industry experience, having previously spent 12 years at IBM as the general manager and global leader of its $8 billion application services business and serving on the board of IBM India. He was also a member of The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) executive council while working at IBM.

He has also worked at Tata Consultancy Services in the US for 18 years. 

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“In the repositioned and elevated role of the India chairman and managing director, Rajesh will strengthen our brand positioning in India and enhance our relationships with relevant Indian government agencies, chambers of commerce, universities, the media and key policy-making bodies, including NASSCOM,” Brian Humphries, CEO of  Cognizant, said. 

“Rajesh will also serve as the executive committee representative of our nearly 2,00,000 associates in India,” he added.