Vivek Paul Leaves Wipro

For the second time within a month, Indian IT powerhouse Wipro Technologies (No. 146 on the 2005 VARBusiness 500) has lost a top executive. Surrounding weeks of speculation and rumor, Vivek Paul resigned as president and vice chairman after six years at Wipro. Industry watchers had expected the move for some time given that Paul sold 90 percent of his stock in Wipro last fall. Paul, 46, is reportedly leaving on good terms with Wipro. He expressed a desire to do more work in the technology and life-sciences field, according to Wipro.

Paul joins Raman Roy, who left the company a month earlier after serving as CEO of Wipro's BPO division and now is working on his own BPO start-up. For his part, Paul quickly joined private equity firm Texas Pacific Group (TPG) as a partner. The firm has more than $3 billion invested in the technology and telecommunications industries worldwide, with significant investments in companies such as Seagate.

"The past six years have been deeply fulfilling for me. I am supremely confident that the leadership team taking over from me will continue to make significant progress in this direction," Paul said, according to a Wipro statement.

Various reports, however, contend there were other factors in Paul's departure, namely because of Azim Premji, chairman and majority owner of Wipro. A Lehman Brothers report issued just days before Paul's resignation was officially announced claimed he left because of "the high level of ownership and control by the chairman." Premji introduced new management the day Paul's departure was announced, promoting Laksham Rao to COO, as well as several other executives.