Bashir was the VP of new products at SAP.
The Managing Director of Infosys Innovation Fund, Yusuf Bashir, who was working at the Palo Alto campus, tendered his resignation to CEO Vishal Sikka, his former SAP colleague, on Tuesday.
Bashir joined Infosys in March 2015 after Sikka recommended the MIT-alumnus to the top position. Both had very close ties during their SAP days when Bashir was the VP of new products.
SAP to Infosys
Bashir made the move to Infosys along with his SAP executive Ritika Suri to help the Indian IT giant take a leap forward into the digital world, which has become one of the key revenue generators for the outsourcing firm in the global market.
During his tenure in Infosys, Bashir took care of the company’s investment in early-stage startups doing path breaking innovations when it comes to Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, big data, cloud computing, and analytics.
Infosys has been following a tried and tested strategy of Accenture by concentrating more on acquisitions when it comes to building new digital capabilities. Since Bashir and Suri joined Infosys, the strategy got an impetus, with the company doing start up investments at a large scale.
Why Bashir resigned from Infosys?
The decision of Bashir to quit Infosys is seen as the effect of the company pulling back from the acquisition strategy. According to reports, there has been no major acquisition since July last year and last time Bashir made an investment for Innovation Fund was in December 2016.
It has to be noted that Bashir resignation comes just a few days after Ritika Suri stepped down as the Infosys’ executive vice-president.
With Bashir and Suri making their way out of Infosys, the times have become much more difficult for Sikka who has been battling with several challenges such as the new H-1B visa guidelines of the US and the corporate governance issues.
Infosys Innovation Fund
The Infosys Innovation Fund invests in innovative entrepreneurial ventures, to create long term value to end-users of the technology and solutions.