In what has come as a shock to the industry, V Balakrishnan has quit Infosys, making it a high profile exit from the company. This is the eighth top executive to quit the company since Narayana Murthy tookover as Chairman.

In a statement, Chairman Narayana Murthy said it was "difficult to imagine Infosys without Bala's passion and commitment." The company, however, did announce that Kris Gopalakrishnan would be heading the BPO business in the interim while BG Srinivas would take over as Lodestone chairman.

On Thursday Subrahmanyam Goparaju, Senior Vice President and a member of the Executive Council that frames business resigned. Goparaju, who joined the company in 1998, was also heading Infosys Labs, the research and innovation division. With Goparaju's exit, Savio D'Souza will manage Infosys Labs' Service Differentiation Platform, while Anindya Sircar will look after the IP Cell.

The news of the exit came after market hours and the stock of Infy might react on Monday, given that this was a high porfile exit.

With inputs from PTI