Tata Consultancy Services, India’s biggest technology services and consulting company, announced a surprise change at the top yesterday. CEO Rajesh Gopinathan has resigned to “pursue his other interests,” and K Krithivasan, another company veteran will take over in the coming months, the Mumbai-listed IT giant told the stock exchanges after the markets closed. Also in this brief, Xoriant, an engineering services provider in the US, gets a new chief executive; and the UK bans TikTok on government devices. Notes: Tata Consultancy Services, India’s biggest IT services and consulting company, announced a surprise change at the top yesterday. CEO Rajesh Gopinathan has resigned, and K Krithivasan, another company veteran will take over in the coming months, the Mumbai-listed IT giant told the stock exchanges after the markets closed. “After a stellar career of over 22 years with Tata Consultancy Services, and a successful stint as Managing Director and CEO during the last six years, Rajesh Gopinathan has decided to step down from the company to pursue his other interests,” the company said in a press release. The company’s board of directors has accepted the decision, and Gopinathan will continue with the company till Sep. 15, “to provide transition and support to his successor,” the company said. TCS named Krithivasan as the CEO designate with effect from March 16. He will be appointed as the managing director and CEO in the next financial year, which starts April 1. Gopinathan “has laid the foundation for the next phase of TCS’ growth with significant investments in cloud, agile and automation to help clients accelerate their transformation,” N Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons and TCS, said in the release. “I have been harbouring a few ideas on what I want to do in the next phase of my life,” Gopinathan said in the press release. “After deep reflection and in discussion with the Chairman and the Board, we decided that the end of this fiscal year is a good time for me to step aside and pursue those interests,” he said. Gopinathan said the company had added $10 billion in incremental revenues on his watch and its market capitalization had increased by more than $70 billion through the six years that he was chief executive. He was elevated to the top job in 2016 when his boss and mentor Chandrasekaran was tapped to run the Tata Group amid a corporate feud between the Tatas and the late Cyrus Mistry who was ousted as chairman of Tata Sons that year. CEO-designate Krithi Krithivasan is presently President and Global Head of the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance Business Group at Tata Consultancy Services, the company’s biggest unit. He joined TCS in 1989. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of TCS Iberoamerica, TCS Ireland and the supervisory board of TCS Technology Solutions AG. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Madras and a master’s degree in industrial and management Engineering from IIT Kanpur. Elsewhere, Xoriant, an engineering services provider headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Sukamal Banerjee was named as the new CEO. Banerjee, a former HCL Technologies executive, takes over from founder and CEO Girish Gaitonde. And in some big tech news, the UK, yesterday, banned the use of Chinese-owned video app TikTok on government devices, with immediate effect, according to a press statement.