Healthcare-focused technology services company CitiusTech announced a leadership transition on August 17, appointing Dhaval Shah as Acting Chief Executive Officer and Shyam Karunakaran as President. According to reports from Moneycontrol, this comes as current CEO Rajan Kohli is set to leave the company by the end of August 2026 to pursue other opportunities. The appointments reflect a succession plan that has been in place and demonstrate the company's confidence in its existing leadership team. As reported by CitiusTech, Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., Chairman, emphasized that "Dhaval and Shyam have been integral to that journey. Their deep understanding of our clients, people and industry, combined with their track record of building and scaling businesses, positions them strongly to lead CitiusTech through its next phase of growth." Shah stated that "Our focus now is to make intelligence an integral part of how healthcare organisations operate, make decisions and deliver outcomes. We will build on this foundation to establish CitiusTech as a leader in healthcare AI services," while Karunakaran noted that "the healthcare industry stack is being rebuilt around AI, and CitiusTech is positioned across three layers—the engineering layer, the intelligence layer and the agentic layer."
Dhaval Shah, who was previously Chief Business Officer for CitiusTech's MedTech and Life Sciences businesses, will take over as Acting CEO with immediate effect. Shyam Karunakaran, formerly Chief Business Officer for the Healthcare Payer and Platforms business, will assume broader responsibilities spanning enterprise strategy, markets, growth and execution. Shah has been with the company for more than 19 years, helping shape the company's culture, values, and operating model since its earliest days, while Karunakaran has spent 17 years at CitiusTech, serving as Chief Business Officer for the company's Payer and Platform businesses and helping build them into the franchises they are today. As reported by CitiusTech, Shah and Karunakaran were among the company's early employees and together headed businesses accounting for more than 80% of the company's operations. The company stated that "Shah and Karunakaran were among CitiusTech's early employees and together headed businesses accounting for more than 80% of the company's operations," positioning them strongly for the expanded leadership roles. According to PRNewswire, the appointments reflect succession planning that has been in place and CitiusTech's confidence in the strength of its leadership team, positioning the company for its next phase of growth.
According to CitiusTech, the company delivered strong growth in FY26, placing its performance in the top quartile of technology services companies. The company reported that business momentum is continuing into FY27, with demand for healthcare-specific AI solutions gaining traction as clients increasingly look to apply AI to real-world healthcare challenges. The company operates with more than 7,700 healthcare technology professionals globally and works with over 140 enterprises. As reported by CitiusTech, the company is maintaining industry-leading client satisfaction and has received multiple recognitions as a leader by leading industry analysts. The company is already helping clients apply AI to real-world healthcare challenges, with growing demand for healthcare-specific AI solutions driving strong momentum across the business. However, CitiusTech did not disclose specific revenue or growth figures for the current financial year.
Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., Chairman of CitiusTech, emphasized the company's strong foundation built over two decades, underpinned by deep healthcare expertise and trusted client relationships. Shah stated that the focus is to make intelligence an integral part of how healthcare organizations operate, while Karunakaran highlighted that the healthcare industry stack is being rebuilt around AI, positioning CitiusTech uniquely to win across three layers: the Engineering Layer, the Intelligence Layer, and the Agentic Layer. As reported by CitiusTech, the focus now is to scale these AI offerings rapidly and responsively to meet the evolving needs of clients, with the company already helping clients apply AI to real-world healthcare challenges. The leadership transition comes as CitiusTech builds on strong business momentum, with a continued focus on healthcare specialization, AI-led transformation and delivering measurable outcomes for clients. The company is now looking to scale healthcare-specific AI offerings as clients increase their adoption of automation and generative and agentic AI across clinical, operational and administrative processes.
The leadership transition occurs at a time when the EQT and Bain-backed company is in takeover talks with larger IT services companies, including CitiusTech, as reported by Moneycontrol. CitiusTech provides digital engineering, data, analytics and AI services to healthcare and life sciences companies, with the company positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for healthcare AI solutions. The company's focus on building AI capabilities that drive real outcomes for clients reflects the broader industry trend toward AI-powered healthcare solutions. Kohli joined CitiusTech as CEO in 2023 after a nearly three-decade career at Wipro, during which he expanded partnerships and investments in healthcare AI and positioned the company as a specialist technology provider to the sector. "Together, we forged strategic partnerships across the healthcare ecosystem, elevated client trust and built a strong foundation in AI," Kohli said. As reported by CitiusTech, the company has the full support of the Board and the mandate to lead the organization and execute on its strategic priorities, with the leadership transition reflecting succession planning that has been in place and demonstrating the company's confidence in its strength of its leadership team.
