Rao's turning point at Infosys came in December 2013, when then chairman and the company's iconic founder N.R. Narayana Murthy was orchestrating a massive shake-up inside Infosys as part of his turnaround efforts, which led to exits of potential CEO candidates such as Ashok Vemuri, V. Balakrishnan and, later in early 2014, B.G. Srinivas.