Infosys has selected Sushanth Tharappan to replace Richard Lobo as HR head. Tharappan was senior vice president and head of the Infosys Leadership Institute. He successfully led succession planning and executive development for the past four years in this role before this elevation.
An alumnus of Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Tharappan was manager –training and development at Life Skills (I) Training for almost three years, at Chennai, in the initial years of his professional journey, in 1997.
The year 2002 saw him moving to Infosys as training officer – HRD. A year into this role, he was promoted to associate manager – learning and development, HRD. For over two years, he successfully identified skills for business units and planned the behavioural training annual calendar for the organisation, among other responsibilities. By 2004, he was principal consultant, Infosys Leadership Institute (ILI), handling leadership development of the identified hi-potentials in the organisation.
Three years later, he was elevated to AVP, head – deployment, ILI. From 2008 to 2011, he was AVP, head – organisation development, HRD. In this role, he anchored the HR Strategy on performance management, organisation design, career and competency architecture, leadership assessment and movement as well as organisational assessments. Then, it was time for a short seven-month stint as AVP, head – talent acquisition & organisation development, HRD.
His next promotion saw him donning the hat of AVP, global head – talent acquisition, HRD, taking charge of the global talent-acquisition strategy and operations. April 2013 to June 2014 was the period when he served as vice president, global head – talent acquisition & head – HR, products, platforms and solutions (PPS).
Tharappan’s next stop was EdgeVerve Systems, an Infosys company, where he played senior vice president and chief people officer for four years, before he was appointed senior VP & head – ILI.
He will step into the shoes of Richard Lobo now, who has been head – HR, Infosys, since 2015. A mechanical engineer from Manipal Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Xavier’s Institute of Management, Lobo joined Infosys in 2000. Prior to that, he was with Godrej & Boyce, where he was assistant manager – sales and marketing, responsible for sales in North India. He also managed the marketing activity including advertising, product management and brand building.
After handing over the baton to Tharappan, Lobo will move to a special projects team headed by Salil Pareskh, CEO, Infosys.
