HCLTech CEO C Vijayakumar’s remuneration for the fiscal year 2024 surged by 190.75% year-on-year, reaching approximately ₹84.16 crore, making him the highest-paid CEO among Indian IT services companies for the year.
Trailing behind Vijayakumar is Infosys CEO Salil Parekh, with a compensation package of around ₹66.25 crore, followed by Wipro’s new CEO Srini Pallia, who received around ₹50 crore. TCS CEO K Krithivasan’s annual maximum basic salary stands at about ₹1.9 crore.
According to HCLTech’s annual report released on July 22, Vijayakumar’s earnings included a base salary of $1.96 million (₹16.39 crore), a performance-linked bonus of $1.14 million (₹9.53 crore), and $2.36 million (₹19.74 crore) in long-term incentive (LTI) cash components. Additionally, he received $4.56 million (₹38.15 crore) in LTI perquisite value of the restricted stock units (RSUs) exercised, and a further $0.04 million in benefits, perquisites, and allowances, bringing his total compensation to $10.06 million.
Vijayakumar’s remuneration was 707.46 times the median salary of HCLTech employees. The median salary increase for employees for the year was about 7.07%, according to the annual report.
In his letter to shareholders, Vijayakumar highlighted HCLTech’s performance, stating, “We closed the year with revenue of $13.3 billion, up 5.4% YoY. Our revenue growth rate was the highest among the tier 1 global IT services companies and our EBIT margin for the year was 18.2%.”
Despite a cautious outlook on discretionary spending, HCLTech reported observing some positive trends in specific areas during the company’s Q1FY25 earnings. “We expect the demand environment for IT services to remain unchanged, with discretionary spends by clients staying soft. But equally, there are opportunities for growth led by emerging technologies such as GenAI and surrounding areas such as cloud, data, and cybersecurity. With our comprehensive portfolio across digital, engineering, cloud, AI, and software, we are well-placed to leverage the market opportunities,” Vijayakumar noted in the annual report.
On the generative AI front, HCLTech has already delivered over 200 proofs of concept (PoCs) and plans to upskill over 50,000 employees in FY25 in Gen AI and adjacent capabilities. Vijayakumar emphasized, “When it comes to GenAI, we see the market moving toward real-world B2C and B2B use cases being deployed at scale. HCLTech’s full-stack technology play and core engineering DNA positions us uniquely to help clients unlock the full potential of GenAI. Our approach to GenAI is grounded in the ‘art of possible’ to enable clients to deploy practical technology solutions.”
