Phaneesh Murthy

Phaneesh Murthy is an Indian technology businessman. He was director of Infosys Ltd from 2000 to 2002. Subsequently, he became the chief executive officer of iGATE Corporation in 2003, after the company acquired his start-up Quintant. Murthy later became president in 2006 and was re-elected in 2010. He was president and CEO until May 2013. He is the CEO of Primentor, a consulting agency that mentors senior executives to promote hyper-growth.

Early life Phaneesh Murthy was born in a middle class family in Bangalore, Karnataka. He completed his schooling from Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Bangalore before receiving his B.Tech Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and PGDMgt from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Career After graduating in 1987, Murthy started working for Sonata Software. After having worked with Sonata for 5 years, he moved to Infosys Ltd. Within two years of Murthy joining, Infosys picked up lucrative projects in Asia and Europe.

Beginning in May 2000, he was both Director of Infosys and Director of Infosys BPO Ltd. As the Global Sales Head of Infosys, he was widely credited as the one who was responsible for taking the organization from just $2 million in revenues to $700 million in under 10 years. He left Infosys in 2002.

In July 2002, he co-founded Primentor, a consulting agency.

Murthy is credited with the iGATE acquisition of Patni Computer Systems in 2011 for $1.22 billion.

He co-founded PM Health & Life Care, an online marketplace for healthcare products, in March 2015. In August, Zigy.com was launched by PM Health & Life Care; Zigy.com is a managed online marketplace which connects chemists and druggists with consumers for direct purchases. Zigy received $5 million of initial funding in September 2015.

In 2016, Murthy joined Marlabs, a digital solutions provider, as a board member.

He is also on the board of directors at Opus. He previously was on the boards of eTouch, GlobalEdge, and New State Capital Partners.

In the mid-2000’s, he founded the Kabini Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of the Kabini jungle system. In 2022, Murthy donated Q4i thermal drone technology to the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve. He also donated 9000 tracking cameras, which have been strategically placed in various locations throughout the reserve.

Allegations

While at Infosys, two women filed lawsuits against Murthy. Despite Murthy strongly denying the accusations throughout proceedings, the lawsuits were settled out of court and he subsequently departed from Infosys.

In December 2013, Murthy sued iGate, contesting the basis of terminating his employment contract. He argued that iGate knew about his relationship with the subordinate employee and improperly used the reporting policy to terminate him. He also claimed that iGate withheld vested stocks due to him that were worth $17 million.