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From Corporate Jet To Vishal Sikka's Pay, Infosys Clarification In 10 Points
Chairman said board does not consider that it is in battle with founders Mr Sikka's compensation was raised to $11 million Infosys' founders objected to 50% salary hike which was given to Mr Sikka
13 Feb 2017, 10:40 PM IST 
Financial controls put in place in Infosys is gold standard, said Chairman R Seshasayee
- Mr Seshasayee said the board does not consider that it is in a battle with the company's founders over corporate governance. "I don't think there is any battle. There is no conflict of interest, there is only convergence of interest," he said.
- On Vishal Sikka's pay hike, Mr Seshasayee said aligning compensation to shareholder value creation was a contemporary practice, adding that while Mr Sikka's compensation was raised to $11 million, the "fixed component came down from $5 million to $4 million."
- On another concern, the chairman said only 8 per cent of Vishal Sikka's travel in the last few months was on chartered jets. Infosys, he said, does not have a corporate jet.
- "Infosys has done well in the past two years," said Mr Sikka, 49, asserting that he joined the company "due to a higher level of governance."
- Infosys' three founders and shareholders Mr Murthy, Kris Gopalakrishnan and Nandan Nilekani have reportedly objected to executive pay in the company including the raise for Mr Sikka, whose annual compensation was raised by over 50 per cent to $11 million (Rs 74 crore) from $7 million (Rs 47 crore) last year.
- They have also questioned the appointment of independent director Punita Kumar-Sinha, a well-known investor and wife of junior aviation minister Jayant Sinha. "She has strong academic qualifications...A woman should not be judged by the profession of her spouse," Mr Seshasayee said today.
- The chairman stressed on the need to move on from what he said was "not a row" between the founders and the board. "Because we live in a glass house so please don't stare at us for too long, let us get on with our business," he said.
- Mr Seshasayee also said he welcomed suggestions and that the board regularly engaged with promoters and other stakeholders. Former Infosys chief financial officer V Balakrishnan had said that Mr Seshasayee should step down, alleging that communication between important shareholders and the board has broken down. He demanded that the board should be reconstituted.
- Reacting to today's press conference by Infosys board members, its former CFO V Balakrishnan said he was disappointed that the company did not offer 'concrete answers' on matters like CEO compensation and severance pay to former executives, and insisted that the board need to take the 'first step' to address the concerns raised. He said the clarifications offered by Infosys were 'very disappointing'.
- Mr Murthy's observation that huge severance packages to ex-employees raised suspicion of "hush money" was deeply "disturbing", Mr Seshasayee said. Mr Murthy told NDTV this morning that members of the Infosys board are "all good intentioned people of high integrity but obviously being human even good people sometimes make mistakes. This is one such case."
