Wipro’s Chief Growth Officer Resigns In Tenth Senior-Level Exit This Year

Wipro Ltd. has lost its tenth senior management personnel so far this year, once again due to a restructuring brought on by Chief Executive Officer Thierry Delaporte.

Stephanie Trautman, Wipro’s U.S.-based chief growth officer, has resigned just three years into the job “to pursue personal and professional goals outside of the company," according to the resignation letter mentioned in the exchange filing on Friday. She will be with the company till Jan. 31, 2024.

“I appreciate the opportunity given to me by Wipro over the past three years and am proud of the work we have done together to help transform the company,” she said.

Trautman’s exit is part of an ongoing transformation at Wipro’s chief growth office that was set up when Delaporte effected the first round of restructuring at the Bengaluru-based IT services firm, the company told NDTV Profit in an emailed statement.

“We established the growth office three years ago to reimagine our approach to large deals, account development, partnerships and sales processes, as well as to develop a blueprint for building strategic solutions for clients,” Delaporte said in the statement. “The growth office helped us achieve a new level of consistency in large deal bookings.”

Now, Wipro has started integrating the so-called Strategic Pursuits team—previously part of the chief growth office led by Trautman—into strategic market units. That, according to Wipro, will bring the Strategic Pursuits team closer to clients and on-ground sales teams.

“This integrated approach will help us uncover new growth opportunities, enhance our speed to market, and well our success rate in deal wins,” Delaporte said.

The remaining functions of the growth office will now be looked at by the CEO’s office.

Delaporte’s arrival at Wipro more than three years ago brought with it wave upon wave of restructurings and a spate of senior-level exits, topped by the resignation of company veteran and Chief Financial Officer Jatin Dalal in September this year. 

Other senior-level exits in 2023 include:

• Mohd. Haque, head of the healthcare and medical devices unit.

• Ashish Saxena, head of manufacturing and hi-tech business units.

• Kamini Shah, chief financial officer of Wipro Americas 1.

• Nithin V Jagmohan, chief financial officer of Wipro Americas 2.

• Sanjeev Singh, chief operations officer.

• Vice President Gurvinder Sahni.

• Wipro India Head Satya Easwara.

• Wipro iDEAS Head Rajan Kohli.

Now, Wipro is facing the threat of revenue shrinkage in the ongoing fiscal.

The company shrank for the third straight quarter in July–September, as “slower for longer” demand as well as weakness in the consulting business weighed on the top line. Wipro expects its revenue to fall by 3.5% to 1.5% in the October–December period.

“Against a challenging environment, we continue to take the bold decisions needed to realise our long-term ambitions,” Delaporte said in a press statement accompanying the IT firm’s second-quarter earnings. “We are investing in our technology infrastructure and streamlining our operations and delivery to drive profitable growth.”

On Friday, Wipro’s shares rose 0.91% to Rs 422 apiece on the BSE, even as the benchmark Sensex ended the day 0.44% higher at 69,825.60 points.