BG Srinivas, the next Infosys CEO?

In less than four months, BG Srinivas has gone from being dark horse to front-runner to succeed SD Shibulal as the CEO of India's second-largest software exporter. To critics, he is the leader in a depleted race, but those who know Srinivas well say that his low profile belies his formidable business smarts. 

Srinivas, 53, is the oldest of the three people - fellow board members Ashok Vemuri and V Balakrishnan, who have both resigned - believed to be candidates to become CEO of Infosys. 

Despite being the head of Europe, as well as chief of banking and financial services globally, he is very reticent. 

"BG (as he is called by friends and colleagues) is a very quiet, no-fuss person. He has the ability to manage both seniors as well juniors without creating friction," former CFO Mohandas Pai, who is now with the Manipal Group, told ET. 

Srinivas, who spent 14 years at ABB before joining Infosys in 1999, has stayed overseas for several years and he has been aggressive in marketing and growing his team, Pai said. "He didn't work directly with me, but we've gone and met clients, we've gone and met investors, and he's always held his own and stood up as a good business person whom people respected." 

That seems to be also what investors and analysts think of Srinivas, who lives in London with his family. 

"BG is a very nice man, he's soft-spoken and gets along well with company insiders," said an analyst at one of the biggest US banks. 

"It seems like most people that I know in the company seem to favour BG over most other candidates that were spoken about as CEO candidates," said the analyst with the US bank. 

But Ashok Vemuri, the youngest of the trio, was perhaps the most suave of the lot. A former Bank of America executive, he was certainly the most determined to become CEO and decided to attain that goal at smaller rival iGate in August. 

The two also caught the attention when they swapped their portfolios in 2011. Srinivas, a mechanical engineer from Bangalore University, took on banking and financial services from Vemuri, who in turn took on manufacturing clients. They continued to be top bosses of their respective geographies, Vemuri in the US and Srinivas, across the pond. Balakrishnan, who resigned last week, was recently seen by some as more favoured once founder NR Narayana Murthy returned to take charge at the company in June. 

To an outsider, Srinivas is "not that aggressive and maybe he's more of an operations guy and a strategic guy", the analyst remarked, preferring to be not to be identified as he was not authorised to discuss the matter with the media. 

With a series of top-level exits since Murthy returned in June to lead a beleaguered company that had lost its bellwether status, investors and clients are looking for clarity at the top. 

"The biggest thing that Srinivas has to do is gain client confidence," said an observer of Infosys, who has ties to the company. "If you meet global CEOs, you must have the gravitas to talk to them and hold a discussion for 30 minutes or an hour. Vemuri had that gravitas, Balakrishnan had that gravitas." 

Another person close to Murthy said that at the moment Srinivas' chances of becoming CEO of Infosys appear bright. "If Murthy has said it will be an internal candidate, that person can only be BG." 

The question is, has Murthy really decided that.