IT Visionaries

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,  companies around the world were asking the same question: How do I mobilize my workforce and give them the tools and skills they need to work from home? GitHub employs more than 1,000 employees, all of whom work remotely. So we invited their CTO, Jason Warner, back to the program to discuss how he advised companies on adapting to their new normal. And he...

The process of buying and selling a home is one of the most strenuous and frustrating out there. Imagine this: You find a home and make an offer, but that home already has multiple bids so, after a long bidding war, you finally get the home of your dreams. But now after a clean inspection, the appraisal falls through and you ask yourself, ‘Why is this so frustrating? Ian Wong and Opendoor asked th...

The role of the CTO is one of the most important positions within any organization. It’s also one of the most rapidly-evolving jobs in the C-suite. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Kalyan Kumar , the CTO and Corporate Vice President of HCL Technologies , discusses the way he’s seen the role of the CTO change. Plus he explains why companies are now shifting their focus to how technology can creat...

We take hundreds of thousands of pictures a year. On our phone, on our tablets, and on our cameras. And while those moments in time are often meaningful parts of our past, rarely do we feel a need to back those memories up. Why is that? Danny Allan is the CTO of Veeam and for years, he’s been asking that same question. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Danny discusses why it is time to take backu...

We’ve all been there before. We hop in our cars to head downtown for the big show, but there’s a problem. We’re running late, and along with thousands of other people, we are hunting for the perfect spot. You know... the one that’s close enough to walk, but not too far and still safe. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just reserve a spot and not think twice about the hassle? Luckily, Jon Ziglar , th...

There’s an adage that goes “the bigger the risk, the greater the reward.” But there is also an idea that taking risks can backfire and prevent people or companies from achieving their greatest success. For Leo Budin , the CIO of Cascade Financial Services , the risk-reward relationship has always fueled his passions. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Leo discusses how he implements lessons he lea...

Much like a child experiencing the wonder of life for the first time, there is still so much to discover when it comes to artificial intelligence. The technology is still in its infancy and those in the industry are trying to work out constraints to allow A.I. to constantly learn and gather information but give it boundaries or rules to keep it honest. Casimir Wierzynski is the Senior Director of...

For as long as Jen Miller-Osborn can remember, she’s been infatuated with puzzles. The thought-process behind mining for an isolated piece and finding its greater purpose has always been fuel for her ambition. For Jen, she connects her love of puzzling to her responsibilities as the Deputy Director of Threat Intelligence for Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks . With the company, she is tasked with iden...

We’ve all heard the term digital transformation. But do any of us really know what it means? According to Tony Saldanha , the President of Transformant , most people within the IT universe don’t, and the confusion is causing a major issue for companies looking to embark on the process. Tony joined IT Visionaries to help bring clarity to the situation. He also discusses his book, Why Digital Transf...

Mark Settle is a seven-time CIO and one of the most respected and experienced IT leaders in the industry. He is also the author of the book From the Valley: A Practical Primer on the Future of IT Management . On this episode of IT Visionaries, Mark sits down to discuss his latest book and identifies some of the key characteristics that separate Silicon Valley start-ups from their peers. 3 Key Take...

The first 100 days for any executive are a whirlwind. You’re learning a new job and wrapping your head around your new responsibilities. Now, imagine those first three months when you’re the CIO of Wipro , a company with a net worth of $8.5 billion and more than 180,000 employees. The urgency hits a little quicker. That’s Rohit Adlakha’ s story and on this episode of IT Visionaries, Rohit details...

Mary Beth Westmoreland always knew she’d land a job in technology— her love for math and science inspired her too much for her not to end up in the field. What she didn’t know is that she’d become one of the most influential and passionate leaders in the technology space. Mary Beth is the CTO Blackbaud and she joined IT Visionaries to discuss how she is helping to drive change and innovation in th...

For years, technology developers have focused on streamlining best practices for sales and marketing departments across the country, but the same cannot be said about their legal counterparts. After all, no two contracts are the same, right? On this episode of IT Visionaries hosted by producer Hilary Giorgi, Cai GoGwilt , the Co-founder and CTO of Ironclad talks about how his company is helping le...

For as long as Sanjay Poonen can remember, he’s been infatuated with teams. Whether it was the late Koby Bryant and his Los Angeles Lakers or Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, the idea of team success has consistently guided him from one point in life to the next. Today, Sanjay serves as the Chief Operating Officer of VMware , a company that employs more than 30,000 employees and is helping pe...

Eliminating the back row in education is not just a metaphor for James Kenigsberg , it's his personal mission. When James, the founding CTO of 2U inc. , immigrated to America from the Soviet Union, he discovered technology could not only be a pathway to a career, but it could also be a conduit to scale anything that piqued his interests. On this episode of IT Visionaries, James discusses the journ...

The Pace of Change has never been this fast, yet it will never be this slow again. As technology continues its meteoric rise in the workplace, the workforce around it must adapt and embrace it. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Ravi Kumar , President of Infosys , discusses the importance of how we can reshape our education system by adopting life-long learning techniques and how the hiring proces...

Over the last few years, how we see and use storage has gone through a major transformation. We no longer carry around bulky hard drives and we’re less concerned about running out of space. Instead, we simply upload everything to the cloud. It’s an invisible, broad infrastructure that feels neverending and sometimes appears too good to be true. It’s a dream come true … for most people. But for som...

Hey Google, can you tell me the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series?... Digital assistants, we’ve all used them for varying things. Maybe it was scheduling an alarm or checking the weather, the uses of these assistants continue to evolve. And while they reside on our desktops, within our phones, and in the speaker that sits on our countertops and as this digital workforce sits ready in...

For much of his life, Allen Shaheen had no desire for a career in the technology industry. But as time passed — and thanks to some helpful nudges from his parents — much like peanut butter and jelly, Allen and technology naturally gravitated toward one another. Today Allen serves as the Executive Vice President of Digital Engineering at Cognizant , a company he has been with for almost 15 years. O...

For Yugabyte CEO and Co-founder, Karthik Ranganathan , his love for technology started like most: with a video game. Those days of sitting in front of a device button-mashing ignited a fire within him that only grew until he asked himself an obvious question: How do these things work? That question and an innate curiosity around technology carried him to stops at Microsoft and Facebook, ultimately...

The intersection of technology and consumers is more prevalent today than it has ever been before. And while many of us continue to utilize the benefits of predictive technology, we’re still slightly uncomfortable with how seeps into our lives. This growing dichotomy often leaves us asking one important question: Can I trust this technology? Luckily, Michael Biltz , the Managing Director at Accent...

In an industry filled with computer science and engineering degrees, Eric Berridge is a believer that those with an arts and humanities focus can succeed. He’s an entrepreneur, a techy and literary believer all wrapped in one. In December of 2000, Eric helped start and build a consultancy firm known as Bluewolf . Today, that same company has been acquired by IBM and is a leading consultancy firm,...

When you spend more than 20 years at a company, you get to see all the ways things change over the years. You may even play a part in revolutionizing a company and sometimes an entire industry. That was the experience Norm Fjeldheim had while he was working at Qualcomm, and today he’s helping to bring about a new kind of revolution. Currently, Norm is the Senior Vice President, Chief Information O...

There are countless ways that we can make an impact when it comes to addressing the climate crisis. Some of the steps we can take are small, but others have the potential to really make a dent in the goals set by climate leaders. On this episode of IT Visionaries, we wanted to dive into some of those large-scale, hugely impactful projects, so we brought back Patrick Flynn , the Vice President of S...

There are countless ways that humans and technology interact. And those interactions are becoming more and more prevalent in every aspect of daily life. But not everyone likes to use technology in the same way. So when you’re dealing with every single type of person imaginable, like Scott Strickland does as the EVP & Chief Information Officer at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, you have to really underst...