BENGALURU/MUBAI: Aarthi Subramanian is set to take over as the first woman chief operating officer at TCS on May 1 – but it doesn’t end there. She will also be the first woman C-suite executive at a major homegrown IT services company.
While the IT services industry, which is the backbone of India’s economic growth, has seen some women in CEO positions, they have mainly been in local branches of foreign players. ITC Infotech, which is much smaller than the $30-billion TCS, had appointed Sushma Rajagopalan as CEO in 2014. Gender diversity at the top is unimpressive even though the industry is one of the biggest recruiters of women.
Even within the broader Tata Group, Subramanian will be one of the few women to hold the top position as COO of a Tata company. In 2024, S Sukanya became the COO of Tata Technologies. In 2018, Deepika Rao served as CEO of Roots Corporation, which managed the Ginger chain of hotels. In 2012, Avani Davda served as the CEO of Tata Starbucks.
Subramanian started as a graduate trainee in TCS in 1989 and rose through the ranks to became a troubleshooter and earn the moniker ‘Ms Fixit’. TCS has expanded its executive framework by bringing in Aarthi from Tata Sons, where she was the group chief digital officer for eight years, driving digital technology, innovation, and artificial intelligence at the group.
“The firm is implementing a contextual reset to remain relevant and connected with customers in an AI-driven world, and Aarthi is the right candidate,” said an industry source. A Tata Group insider described her as a “very good professional” who commands significant respect within the Tata Group’s ecosystem. She is also a confidante of Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran – both having worked together in TCS and later at Tata Sons – and has his ear, the source told TOI.
In 2017, she was appointed chief digital officer of Tata Sons, transitioning from an executive director of TCS to a non-executive director of the software services company. Subramanian also represented Tata Sons – the principal investment company and promoter of Tata enterprises – on the boards of Tata Capital, Tata AIA Life Insurance, Infiniti Retail (Croma), and Tata Electronics.
From May 1, Subramanian (58) will assume the COO position at TCS, moving from non-executive to executive director. This role change requires her to step down from her board positions.
TCS CEO K Krithivasan, in the earnings presser, said, “She knows TCS quite well. She was part of the TCS board while also serves as the chief digital officer of Tata Group. She brings extensive experience regarding how the business has performed and how it has adopted technology.” Her COO tenure concludes in 2030 when she reaches 63. The incumbent CEO Krithivasan will retire in 2029 when he turns 65.
