SPOTLIGHT: Keshav Murugesh: The man who transformed WNS

Keshav Murugesh, Group CEO and Board of Directors member of WNS Global

The acquisition of business process management services provider WNS Holdings by Capgemini has again put the spotlight on Keshav Murugesh, Group CEO and Board of Directors member of WNS Global.

Murugesh has the reputation of being a turnaround strategist. Prior to WNS, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Syntel, which under him saw its revenues double and market cap leapfrog nine times in just eight years.

When Murugesh joined WNS around 2009, the outfit originally set up by British Airways in 1996, it had hit a patch of stagnancy and was progressing nowhere. It had grown rapidly in the initial years and at that time had a headcount of 15,500 while there was also talk of the then-majority owner Warburg Pincus sellling the company.

Initially when he was approached by WNS to ‘fix’ it he was not impressed but on second thoughts he decided he could do something about it.

At such a time, Murugesh joined the company after working as the Chairperson of Nasscom and its BPM Council for multiple terms. Murugesh turned WNS’s focus towards a ‘vertical’ business model, rather than the then-norm of horizontal business solutions.

This set WNS apart to build end-to-end industry-specific capabilities – a move that has now become the norm in society. Today, the company has over 59,000 employees and an over ₹1.2 billion annual revenue with a presence across 16 countries, with over 44,000 employees in India across 11 locations.

Bold step

Years later, Murugesh has now taken the bold step to merge the BPM business with an IT services company at a time when most BPM companies are trying to integrate AI solutions into their business.

Industry folks observing Murugesh’s moves called it another phenomenal move that will likely again change the trajectory of the BPM business. Others said the that move will be complex for WNS clients that opted for the company due to its independent, industry-specialized, and commercially flexible nature.

Speaking about the recent announcement, Murugesh told businessline that the merger with Capgemini does not signal any immediate changes to our global operations with WNS’s presence in New York, London, and India markets being largely complementary to Capgemini’s.

“This transaction will address our global clients’ needs for Agentic AI-driven process transformation to deliver efficiency and agility through hyper-automation. This deal is about creating new capabilities that are additive to our existing model,” said Murugesh.

Published on July 8, 2025