Former Infosys US Head Sandeep Dadlani To Join Snickers Maker Mars

Sandeep Dadlani, former president and head of Americas for Infosys, will join global food giant Mars. Mr Dadlani will take up the role of chief digital officer at Mars. In a statement, the US-based confectionary and pet food giant said that Mr Dadlani will be "responsible for working with Mars' global business segments to drive its digital transformation agenda, while delivering effectiveness and efficiency to our existing technology platforms. Mr Dadlani will bring the power of design thinking, new data analytics capability and automation to accelerate digitization at Mars."

With almost $35 billion in sales, Mars owns brands like Snickers, Milky Way, Mars Drinks and Cocoavia.

Digital tech is transforming our business. Sandeep Dadlani, joins us as our new Chief Digital Officer https://t.co/eplrYpnuwN via @LBBOnline pic.twitter.com/7iOKHHtAtX

— Mars, Incorporated (@MarsGlobal) June 19, 2017

Announcing his departure from Infosys on professional networking site LinkedIn, Mr Dadlani had earlier said: "I have decided to pursue my personal interests elsewhere. Next up: An out-of-the world assignment! Stay tuned."

Mr Dadlani will relocate to Mars' New Jersey offices. He will report into Angela Mangiapane, president, Mars Global Services, and Claus Aagaard, chief financial officer.

At Infosys, Mr Dadlani was also the global head for manufacturing, retail, CPG (consumer packaged goods) and logistics verticals. He handled "portfolio P&L of approximately $2.5 billion globally, helping over 300 clients across the world to embrace digital technologies".

Bengaluru-headquartered Infosys has announced the appointment of Karmesh Vaswani as the global head-retail, CPG & logistics (RCL) and Nitesh Banga as the global head of manufacturing. Karmesh Vaswani and Nitesh Banga are both career Infoscions who have held strategic portfolios across the organisation for nearly a decade.

Terming Mr Dadlani's exit as a "temporary hiccup", domestic brokerage Edelweiss said: "The exit comes as a surprise as Mr Dadlani had been recently handed additional responsibility of generating more business from the company's new software solutions, including the AI platform Nia. We believe induction of several high profile executives over the past will help the company seamlessly fill the void."

Edelweiss has a 'buy' rating on Infosys shares. "We reiterate that Infosys, equipped with ample margin levers, will outpace peers on the earnings growth front. Maintain 'BUY' with target price of Rs 1,173," the brokerage said.