SANTA CLARA, Calif. – July 1, 2020 – Hitachi Vantara’s board of directors today announced that Gajen Kandiah has been appointed chief executive officer, effective July 13, 2020. Toshiaki Tokunaga, currently CEO and chairman of the Board of Hitachi Vantara, will transition responsibilities to Kandiah through Oct. 1, 2020, after which Tokunaga will remain as chairman.
“I am proud of the tremendous progress Hitachi Vantara has made in the past year to augment our world-class digital infrastructure business with new digital solutions and service offerings,” said CEO and Chairman Toshiaki Tokunaga, Hitachi Vantara. “Thanks to strong internal development, strategic acquisitions, and the integration with Hitachi Consulting, we have added the capabilities we need to guide our customers from what’s now to what’s next. Gajen Kandiah has an impressive track record in rapidly scaling digital businesses. He is the perfect CEO to help Hitachi Vantara, its partner ecosystem and our customers further accelerate their success.”
Gajen Kandiah has built winning IT businesses within multinational corporations and startups for more than two decades. During 15 years with Cognizant, he helped grow the company from $368 million in annual revenues to more than $16 billion. He was most recently president of Cognizant’s multi-billion-dollar Digital Business, a role in which he led the acquisitions of software engineering company Softvision, marketing solutions provider Netcentric, and Idea Couture, a digital innovation and technology services company. He also led a Cognizant-wide initiative to transform company capabilities and services into an integrated, industry- and client-focused suite of offerings and solutions.
Kandiah previously served as senior vice president and general manager of Cognizant’s Information, Media and Entertainment; Manufacturing Logistics; Consumer Goods; and Communications industry practices. Before joining Cognizant, he co-founded NerveWire, Inc., a venture capital-backed management consulting and systems integration firm, which was later acquired by Wipro.
“Hitachi is a market leader at the intersection of innovative industrial solutions and IT services, and it is a brand trusted worldwide to deliver business, environmental and social benefits,” said Gajen Kandiah. “These attributes give Hitachi Vantara an incredible set of advantages that I believe the company and its cloud and strategic go-to-market partners are only just beginning to realize. The opportunity to lead Hitachi Vantara is a thrilling one. I am confident that if we align our broad portfolio of data storage, analytics, industry-specific solutions and IT services behind a singular vision to delight our clients, we will become a true digital leader.”
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