Infosys’ San Francisco-based general counsel (GC) David Kennedy has quit after a mutual agreement between him and the global Bangalore-headquartered IT giant, according to several reports of its stock exchange announcement:

David Kennedy, its General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, and the company have mutually agreed that Mr Kennedy’s employment with the company will cease on 31 December, 2016. The company has entered into a separation agreement with Mr Kennedy on 23 December, 2016.

Bangalore-based deputy GC Gopi Krishnan, who had also joined Infosys in 2014 from IBM, will be taking over the role as acting GC while the company has started the hunt for a new global legal head. Krishnan, who is a 1999 NLSIU Bangalore alum, had previously worked at IBM India from 2000 until 2014.

Kennedy had joined Infosys in November 2014 from JDA Software, having previously also been general counsel at start-up Better Place, and San Jose-based Business Objects. Between 1989 and 2007 he had been at IBM, where he left as associate general counsel.

According to Mint, the separation agreement dated 31 December 2016 envisages a $868,250 severance payment to Kennedy, who is only the second departing Infosys executive to have received such a large golden parachute despite eight high-level departures since 2014.

When it had agreed to pay Rs 17.38 crore (around $2.5m) in 2015 to ex-CFO Rajiv Bansal, shareholders and others had questioned the amount of the payout.