Phaneesh Murthy, former head of marketing of Infosys Technologies, has set up shop in the United States, along with his wife Jaya, to offer consulting and advisory services to global IT companies.

Named Primentor, the California, Fremont-based advisory company will focus on outsourcing consulting to IT clients and vendors.

According to a press statement, released to media in Bangalore on Tuesday, on the client side, Primentor's advisory services will include partner/vendor selection, deal structuring and the on-going contract administration.

"On the vendor side, consulting services will include strategy consulting, service definitions, brand consulting, blueprints for the future, sales, and account management training," the statement said.

Primentor, coined from the phrase 'prime mentor,' is structured as a mentoring organisation and the 4Ms in the logo show the power of mentoring in all directions.

The formation of Primentor has been to a large extent influenced by the spate of requests for help/ advisory/executive positions that have been coming Phaneesh's way in the last few months.

Commenting on the venture, Phaneesh said, "I am excited about the possibility of helping multiple companies achieve world-class excellence and global stature. Not enough services companies have paid sufficient attention to these aspects," he added.

Jaya Murthy remarked that she was looking forward to the prospect of increasing India's share of the world market in technology and BPO services through the advisory services offered by Primentor.

Jaya and Phaneesh hold degrees from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Jaya has also extensive experience in vendor development and management from her stint in the retailing industry, while Phaneesh has vast experience in deal structuring for success, brand building and sales and account management mentoring.

In an advisory capacity, Phaneesh will evaluate the advantage of entering into strategic relationships with multiple IT companies, which have been approaching him for providing expertise on their existing and future projects.

Phaneesh was in the news in July when Reka Maxmovitch, a former woman employee working at Infosys's California office, filed a sexual harassment suit against him and Infosys.

He was then heading the global IT major as its director and marketing executive, worldwide.

Phaneesh was instrumental in building India's IT bellwether as a global brand in consulting, services, and transformation spaces.

Operating most of the time from its main US office at Fremont in California, Phaneesh is credited to have taken Infosys's revenues to half-billion dollars today from a mere $1 million a decade ago.

Even as he was in the thick of the sexual lawsuit controversy, Phaneesh was steering Infosys's subsidiary Progeon in the emerging business process management services as its chairman and chief executive.

As one of India's highest paid IT executives, Phaneesh has the right mix of domain expertise and organisational skills to drive the business prospects of Primentor in the coming years.

Ever since Phaneesh left Infosys under unsavoury circumstances in July last, speculation has been rife over his next move, what with quite a few IT firms and venture capitalists in the sub-continent vying to rope him in floating a new company in partnership.