Francisco D'Souza

Francisco D'Souza (born 23 August 1968) is an Indian American entrepreneur and businessman, who isthe former CEO and Vice Chairman of Cognizant — a Fortune 200 global professional services company — co-founded the NASDAQ-100 company in 1994. He succeeded Lakshmi Narayanan as the CEO in 2007 and in 2018 was appointed Vice Chairman, while continuing his role as the CEO till 1 April 2019.

Francisco was born in Nairobi, Kenya as the son of Placido D'Souza—an Indian Foreign Services officer and diplomat— and Sushila. He spent his childhood in 11 countries and went on to do a Bachelor of Business Administration from University of East Asia Macau and a Master of Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University. He has three sisters, Jacinta, Lucia and Maria.

After his graduation from Tepper School of Business (Carnegie Mellon University), Francisco joined Dun & Bradstreet as a management associate in 1992. Cognizant began in 1994 as an in-house project of Dun & Bradstreet, led by Francisco. During the years from 1996, he held various leadership roles at Cognizant. He was elevated to CEO and joined the Board of Directors of Cognizant in January 2007, and promoted to the Vice Chairman of the Board in June 2018.

In 2013, Francisco joined the board of General Electric as its youngest director

He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon University and as Co-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the New York Hall of Science.  

Francisco is a member of the World Economic Forum and the 2019 Chairman of the World Economic Forum’s IT Governors Steering Committee. He sits on the Board of Directors of The National Medal of Honor Museum.

• 2005 - The Economic Times Entrepreneur Award
• 2009 - named among "America's Best CEOs" by Institutional Investor magazine
• 2013 - named among "100 CEO Leaders in STEM" by STEMconnector
• 2013 - Recognized as the Best CEO, Forbes India
• 2014 - "Newsmaker of the Year" by The Financial Express
• 2017 - #10 on Fortune Businessperson of the Year