Tata Consultancy Services announces Sudeep Kunnumal as CHRO-designate

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) has appointed Sudeep Kunnumal as its chief human resources officer (CHRO) designate on Thursday to eventually replace Milind Lakkad, who retires this year. 

Kunnumal, who has served almost 25 years in the Mumbai-based company, is expected to take over as CHRO-designate from 14 March. TCS has not announced when he will eventually take over as the CHRO.

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Since joining TCS in 2000, Kunnumal has headed various HR roles across the country’s largest information technology (IT) services firm. He was previously the HR head of TCS’s banking, financial services, insurance division at TCS, a post he occupied since 2019.

His appointment is a break from the past practice at TCS as the company has always had a business division head to head the HR practice. The outgoing HR head, Lakkad, oversaw the business from clients in the manufacturing industry before becoming the HR head in 2019.

Lakkad’s predecessor, Ajoyendra Mukherjee, also headed a business division before he served as the HR head for 11 years beginning in 2008.

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Lakkad turned 60 this year, which is the retirement age for employees at TCS. Under Lakkad’s watch, TCS became the first IT services firm to link quarterly variable pay to employee attendance in April last year, according to which employees of the company with less than 60% attendance will not be eligible for the quarterly bonus.

TCS was also the only company of the country’s top five software service providers to give its wage hikes on time, in the April-June 2024 period, even as macroeconomic uncertainties forced peers to push back awarding wage hikes to employees.

“His accomplishments in talent acquisition have been transformative, including spearheading gaming-based hiring methodologies that not only identified high-potential candidates but also enhanced candidate engagement. This innovative approach culminated in a landmark achievement, setting a Guinness World Record through the global programming contest, CodeVita, a pioneering initiative that reshaped campus hiring practices,” said TCS in a press release dated 13 March.

This is the fifth high profile exit at the country’s largest IT services company since K. Krithivasan took over as TCS’s chief executive in June 2023. Lakkad’s retirement comes less than eight months after Suresh Muthuswamy, TCS’s head of its North America business resigned.

But these are not the only exits at TCS. To be sure, at least two other executives retired last year.

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Late last year, Dinanath Kholkar, TCS’s head of partner ecosystems and alliances, resigned. In October, the chief technology officer, Ananth Krishnan, retired. In May, the company’s chief operating officer, Natarajan Ganapathy Subramaniam, retired after reaching the company’s mandatory retirement age.

TCS ended last year with $29.1 billion in revenue, up 4.1% on a yearly basis. While it cut headcount last fiscal year, the first nine months of the current fiscal have been upbeat in terms of employee count. The company added 5,808 employees in the April-December 2024 period to end with 607,354 employees.