Vinita Bali to join Cognizant board as independent director

Cognizant Technology Solutions, a US-based IT company with a large presence in India, on Thursday appointed Vinita Bali as an independent director effective February 24. It further said Vice-Chairman Francisco D’Souza will leave the board effective March 31.

Bali, 64, was most recently Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Britannia Industries, from 2005 to 2014. Prior to Britannia, she spent most of her career in senior general management, corporate strategy and marketing roles for The Coca-Cola Company and Cadbury Schweppes Plc.

Bali is on the boards of NYSE-listed Bunge Ltd, an agribusiness and food company, and Smith & Nephew Plc, a global portfolio medical technology business, as well as India-listed Syngene International Ltd, a research and manufacturing company, and CRISIL Ltd, an analytics company. She previously served on the boards of several other companies listed on the NYSE or in India.