Having successfully steered Infosys to a place among the top IT companies of the world in the short span of 20 years, N R Narayana Murthy will step down as Chairman of the company on Friday, albeit with firm indications that he will continue to guide the organisation.

Murthy will hand over his role to K V Kamath, who has been an independent director on the Infosys board since May, 2009. S D Sibulal will take over as the new CEO and MD and S Gopalakrishnan will be Executive Co-Chairman of Infosys. Kris Gopalakrishnan, the current CEO of Infosys, who is also a co-founder, has been elevated as the Executive Co-Chairman.

Murthy's exit as the chairman will mark the end of a formal association with the company, but he will continue to guide the organisation in the capacity of Chairman Emeritus.

"I would be called Chairman Emeritus. I will have a room which I can use if I want... but as propriety demands, I will have no say in any matter, I will not be allowed to attend any board meetings or any meetings. I can meet anybody personally," Murthy had said earlier.

Infosys will host a farewell for Murthy at its campus in Bangalore in the evening, which will be attended by all seven co-founders and prominent former employees, including T V Mohandas Pai and Phaneesh Murthy and Murthy's family.

Murthy co-founded Infosys in 1981 in Pune with six other engineers and created thousands of millionaires courtesy its stock option schemes. Infosys started its operations in a 10x10 room with a capital investment of just Rs 10,000, which was borrowed from Murthy's wife, Sudha Murthy. Now, its revenues have grown to Rs 27,000 crore.

Murthy served as the founder CEO of Infosys for 21 years and was succeeded by co-founder Nandan Nilekani in March, 2002. Born on August 20, 1946, in Karnataka, Murthy obtained his engineering degree (BE) from the University of Mysore in 1967. He then attended the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT, Kanpur) for his master's degree (M Tech) in 1969.

Murthy's vision and business sense made the company go from strength to strength. In 1993, Infosys got listed in the Indian markets and later became the first Indian company to be listed on the New York-based NASDAQ in 1999.