Wipro's Jatin Dalal Appointed Cognizant's Next Chief Financial Officer

The development comes days after, Dalal resigned from the Bengaluru-based IT firm after working for eight years as CFO. At Cognizant, Dalal will replace outgoing CFO Jan Siegmund.

Cognizant on Thursday announced the appointment of Wipro veteran Jatin Dalal as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The development comes days after, Dalal resigned from the Bengaluru-based IT firm after working there for eight years as CFO. At Cognizant, Dalal will replace outgoing CFO Jan Siegmund, who is retiring from the company in early 2024. 

"Dalal will succeed Jan Siegmund, who, as previously disclosed, intends to retire in early 2024. Upon Dalal's assumption of the role of CFO, Siegmund will remain with the Company as a non-executive officer and special advisor to support an orderly transition," the professional services major said on Thursday. 

The company said Dalal brings extensive executive-level financial expertise from complex, multinational organisations.

"He joins Cognizant from Wipro, a publicly traded multinational technology services and consulting company, where he had served as CFO since April 2015 and assumed additional responsibilities as President beginning in December 2019. Previously, he was CFO of Wipro's Global IT Business from 2011 to 2015 in Bangalore, and prior to that, he served as Wipro's UK Head of Finance for the Europe region and as the Global Finance Head for the company's Energy and utilities, Health Care, and Manufacturing business units," the statement noted. 

According to announcements by the two firms, Dalal's last day at Wipro is November 3 and he is expected to join Cognizant by December 2023. 

"Jatin is a highly experienced technology services CFO with a proven track record of financial and operational success in a complex and quickly evolving industry," said Ravi Kumar S, Chief Executive Officer.

"We are pleased to welcome Jatin to Cognizant and confident he will help us achieve our goals as we continue to focus on driving revenue growth," he added.

Reports following the resignation of Jatin Dalal as Wipro's CFO had raised concerns about the company's high senior management attrition in recent months. Dalal is the latest in a steady stream of top-level exits at Wipro, and analysts have said that this is a cause for worry, especially as the company is still in the process of turning around its business.

According to Moneycontorl In a note, Kotak Institutional Equities said that the high senior management attrition is a concern, and while some changes may have been necessary to check underperformance, the loss of key leaders continuing into the fourth year of a turnaround since Delaporte took charge will not be viewed favourably.