Ravi Kumar S, the new CEO of Cognizant, will be paid Rs 6 crore as sign-on bonus, which will be a part of his yearly compensation of Rs 57 crore. His basic salary will be about $1 million, that is, about Rs 8,13,57,500. He will also be eligible for a yearly cash incentive of up to $ 2 million. Additionally, he will enjoy stock returns of about $5 million as a one-time hire award.
Kumar, who was formerly president, Infosys, will also be part of the board at Cognizant, and be based out of New York. After being successfully associated with Infosys for almost two decades, Ravi Kumar has stepped into the shoes of Brian Humphries who was the CEO of Cognizant till now. Humphries will stay on at the IT giant till 15 March 2023, as a special advisor.
Kumar’s salary will reportedly be four times of what Mukesh Ambani was paid in 2020, which was about Rs 15 crore. It is pertinent to mention here that Ambani has been drawing no salary for the last two years, accepting only a rupee in compensation, considering the weak and uncertain economic conditions / environment.
Having been a scientist with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre for about three years in the initial years of his long and chequered career, Kumar has also worked with big names such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sapient and Oracle.
Known to be a compassionate executive leader, strategic thinker and management guru, Kumar is an alumnus of Xavier Institute of Management and Shivaji University.