Hexaware Technologies Ltd on Wednesday ended chief executive officer (CEO) Ramakarthikeyan Srikrishna's 12-year tenure, naming EXL executive Vivek Jetley as his successor in a move that hands the leadership of the IT services company to an outsider.
Jetley previously headed a $1.4 billion business at EXL, overseeing its insurance, healthcare and life sciences segments. He had been with EXL for two decades, having joined the New York-headquartered business process outsourcing (BPO) firm in 2006.
Jetley was appointed CEO for a four-year term after Hexaware's 11-member board approved Srikrishna’s resignation on Wednesday, choosing an external successor in an 18-minute meeting, according to a company statement.
“Vivek brings a proven ability to scale businesses, deepen enterprise relationships and build Data and AI-led growth platforms. As a major shareholder in Hexaware, Carlyle is excited to support Vivek as he steps into this role, and thanks Keech for his contributions to Hexaware over the past 12 years,” said Sandra Horbach, Hexaware board member and chair of Americas Corporate Private Equity at Carlyle, in the statement. Pennsylvania-based private equity firm Carlyle owns 74.3% of Hexaware.
Srikrishna, 56, was among India's longest-serving CEOs and oversaw Hexaware’s return to the stock exchanges in February last year. He will remain with the company as a senior advisor and is expected to hand over the reins to Jetley on 28 October 2026.
Jetley becomes the company’s fourth chief executive after Rusi Brij, P.R. Chandrasekar, and Srikrishna, who took charge in 2004, 2008, and 2014, respectively.
Srikrishna's current five-year term was set to end on 1 March 2028. His departure comes 14 months before the end of his tenure.
“Serving in this role has been one of the most fulfilling chapters of my professional life, and I am deeply grateful for the trust placed in me by the Board, our shareholders, and the broader Hexaware family. During my tenure, I have had the privilege of witnessing and contributing to a meaningful transformation of the company, both in terms of financial performance and the positive impact we have had on our associates, clients, and partners,” Srikrishna said in his resignation letter.
Under Srikrishna, Hexaware became the country’s newest-listed tech services firm and joined the billion-dollar club when it returned to the stock exchanges in February last year.
The company's stock settled 1.3% lower at ₹545.00 on the BSE on Wednesday.
The company, which follows a January-December fiscal calendar as against Indian IT’s April-March, ended last year with $1.54 billion in revenue, up 7.6% on a yearly basis. It reported the third-fastest growth amongst the 13 tech services firms getting more than a billion dollars in annual revenue. It lagged Coforge Ltd and Persistent Systems Ltd, which grew at 29.2% and 17.4%, respectively.
On the other hand, its operating margin rose 80 basis points from a year earlier to 14.4%. Only Mphasis fared worse, with its margin unchanged at 15.3%.
Under Srikrishna, growth was still a sore spot as the company grew at a compounded quarterly rate of 1.76% between March 2025 and July 2026. This was lower than peers Coforge, Mphasis, and Persistent Systems, which grew 7.62%, 1.82%, and 3.81% during this time, respectively. Mint has taken March 2025 as its starting point because the company listed in February that year.
This slow growth comes against the backdrop of challenges from two of its five largest accounts including Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which together made up about $150 million of its revenue as of June last year.
Srikrishna's final initiative was the introduction of a service offering called Zero License, which would allow clients to use software developed by Hexaware’s AI teams and host it on their own servers. This would help them avoid software licensing costs paid to companies such as Microsoft and Google.
