CIO Classified

When Ellora Sengupta joined EverCommerce as CIO, she inherited the IT of over 50 acquisitions — multiple operating models, fragmented tech stacks, and business units that had zero reason to trust a central IT function. Most CIOs would have reached for a consolidation roadmap. Ellora reached for something better: earning the right to be plugged into, instead of just mandating it. In this episode, Ellora tells Yousuf how she's drawn the line between what actually needs to be standardized and what should be left alone so acquired businesses keep their edge. Key Moments: [00:01:00] What Is EverCommerce — and What Makes 50+ Acquisitions So Unusual [00:03:00] The CIO's Real Job: Standardize Some Things, Protect Others [00:04:30] What Multi-Acquisition IT Looks Like vs. Organic Growth [00:05:00] How Ellora Built Trust with Business Units That Didn't Ask for IT [00:07:30] High-Growth SaaS DNA: Customer Obsession, Speed with Discipline, and AI [00:09:30] Why AI Doesn't Get Its Own Budget at EverCommerce [00:11:00] The Personal Story: Starting Over as an Immigrant with Zero Network [00:15:30] How Her Leadership Philosophy Evolved — and the Family Myth She Unlearned [00:17:30] Running the SVASE CIO Educational Fund and Giving Back [00:21:00] The Skills That Actually Matter for Future IT Leaders [00:22:00] Lightning Round About Ellora: Ellora Sengupta is the CIO of EverCommerce, where she oversees enterprise applications, data and analytics, security, corporate IT, infrastructure, and enterprise PMO across a portfolio built through 50+ acquisitions. She brings a "General Manager" mindset to IT leadership, having scaled technology functions at high-growth pre-IPO companies and $50B+ enterprises alike — including stints at Procore, Samsara, Cisco, and Workday. Ellora was named Bay Area CIO of the Year in the 2022 ORBIE Awards (Large Corporate category). She currently serves as president of the SVASE CIO Educational Fund, raising scholarships and providing mentorship for underprivileged students pursuing careers in technology. Guest Highlights: "My success is not how fast can I standardize or make things consistent. My success is — are those vertical businesses ready to plug into the shared services that my team is creating because it makes them better." "Your team is not your family. In a family, it's unconditional. But in a team you need everybody to perform. It doesn't help anyone if you are carrying along a non-performer — the rest of the team has to carry that slack." "I don't have a separate budget for AI. I have a budget and I need to make sure that my tools are AI enabled." - Visit ciopod.com for more episodes. Check out our new YouTube channel and subscribe to never miss an episode. Our Sponsor: Want to accelerate software development by 500%? Meet Blitzy, the only autonomous code generation platform with infinite code context, purpose-built for large, complex enterprise-scale codebases. While other AI coding tools provide snippets of code and struggle with context, Blitzy ingests millions of lines of code and orchestrates thousands of agents that reason for hours to map every line-level dependency. With a complete contextual understanding of your codebase, Blitzy is ready to be deployed at the beginning of every sprint. Blitzy handles the heavy lifting, delivering over 80% of the work autonomously. The platform plans, builds, and validates premium-quality code at the speed of compute, turning months of engineering into a matter of days. It’s the secret weapon for Fortune 500 companies globally. To hear how engineering leaders are transforming the way they deliver software, visit blitzy.com. Schedule a meeting with their consultants to enable an AI-Native SDLC in your organization today. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Two words that make most engineers shudder: code refactoring. Now raise the stakes — refactoring decades of legacy systems inside a large enterprise. A tech debt-heavy project of this scale needs a leader who has driven complex digital transformations, like Gayatri Narayan (formerly PepsiCo, Microsoft, Amazon). Now, as President of Technology at Builders FirstSource, Gayatri Narayan is achieving a 3–4x increase in engineering velocity since joining less than a year ago. Gayatri joins host Yousuf Khan to unpack the strategy behind those results, including how to deploy AI across the SDLC, how to rigorously evaluate ROI on AI investments, and how to lead change across complex enterprise tech stacks. Key Moments: 01:30 – Why Construction Technology Is Ready for Transformation 04:05 – AI Strategy: Elevating UX and Customer Experience 08:20 – Evaluating AI Investments: ROI, NPV, and Operating Costs 12:45 – Achieving 3–4x Engineering Velocity 16:05 – Humans in the Loop: Craft, Code Review, and AI Amplification 18:35 – Where the Industry Gets AI Adoption Wrong 20:30 – Leadership Advice: Start with the Customer About Gayatri: Gayatri Narayan is a general management executive with more than 15 years of experience leading product, engineering, data science, and operations across global enterprises, with full P&L responsibility and a track record of driving profitable growth through digital transformation. She currently serves as President of Technology at Builders FirstSource, where she leads enterprise technology strategy, modernizes legacy systems, and embeds AI into the software development lifecycle to accelerate innovation across the residential construction value chain. Previously, she served as Senior Vice President of Digital Products and Services at PepsiCo and held multiple general management roles at Microsoft, including leading Product and Engineering for Intelligent Communications across Teams and Skype as well as Enterprise PaaS and SaaS businesses; she also held leadership roles at Amazon spanning Marketplace Transportation and Logistics and several major retail categories. Guest Highlights: “We’ve seen a three to four times increase in engineering velocity — especially in refactoring legacy systems where historically there was very little knowledge of how the system actually worked.” “With generative AI, companies that have existed for 20 or 30 years don’t have to get bogged down by legacy stacks. They can embrace emerging technologies without spending 18 to 24 months just refactoring.” “It really comes down to efficiency of time. The developer’s surface area of impact expands dramatically — it’s not just about writing code anymore, it’s about delivering business value faster.” Visit ciopod.com for more episodes. Subscribe on YouTube or follow on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss a conversation with today’s top technology leaders. Our Sponsor: Want to accelerate software development by 500%? Meet Blitzy, the only autonomous code generation platform with infinite code context, purpose-built for large, complex enterprise-scale codebases. While other AI coding tools provide snippets of code and struggle with context, Blitzy ingests millions of lines of code and orchestrates thousands of agents that reason for hours to map every line-level dependency. With a complete contextual understanding of your codebase, Blitzy is ready to be deployed at the beginning of every sprint. Blitzy handles the heavy lifting, delivering over 80% of the work autonomously. The platform plans, builds, and validates premium-quality code at the speed of compute, turning months of engineering into a matter of days. It’s the secret weapon for Fortune 500 companies globally. To hear how engineering leaders are transforming the way they deliver software, visit blitzy.com. Schedule a meeting with their consultants to enable an AI-Native SDLC in your organization today. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See...

On this episode of CIO Classified, host Yousuf Khan sits down with Ravi Thadani, Global Head of IT at Enphase Energy, a company powering over 5 million homes across 160 countries with clean, solar-driven energy. With 85 million microinverters producing 30 gigawatts of power, Ravi’s team is at the epicenter of a massive, real-time data operation—and every IT decision directly impacts the customer experience. About Ravi: Ravi Thadani is a seasoned IT executive with extensive experience leading large-scale digital transformations across Fortune 500 companies. He has driven strategic initiatives across ERP, CRM, PLM, HCM, SCM, analytics, AI/ML, network architecture, cloud infrastructure, and M&A integration. With oversight of multi-$10M budgets and teams of over 300, Ravi has supported business units ranging from $2B to $70B in revenue. Known for his strategic vision and execution, Ravi is recognized for fostering cross-functional alignment, driving agile transformation, and cultivating high-performing teams. His leadership approach is grounded in strong business partnerships, stakeholder governance, innovation, and a relentless focus on outcomes. Timestamps: 01:50 – Enphase Energy's Global Operations 03:40 – Ravi's Role and Responsibilities 06:00 – Managing Customer Data and CRM 16:45 – Driving Change as a CIO 19:50 – The Role of Data in AI 20:55 – The Importance of Data Cleaning 21:20 – Effective Data Governance Strategies 23:45 – Architecting for Scalability 27:30 – Challenges in Hardware and Software Integration Guest Highlights: "AI isn’t replacing you—people using AI are. The adoption curve is about enabling people to do more, not just reducing headcount." "The biggest failure point in IT projects? Treating them like IT projects. Every transformation has to be owned by the business." "Your architecture should always assume 10x growth. Even if you’re not scaling today, you need a conscious plan for when you do." Get Connected: Yousuf Kahn on LinkedInRavi Thadani on LinkedInHungry for more tech talk? Check out latest episodes at ciopod.com: Accelerating Software Development at Enterprise ScaleHow Autonomous AI is Solving the Enterprise Modernization ChallengeHow AI is Expanding the CIO RoleLearn more about Caspian Studios: caspianstudios.com Our Sponsor: Want to accelerate software development by 500%? Meet Blitzy, the only autonomous code generation platform with infinite code context, purpose-built for large, complex enterprise-scale codebases. While other AI coding tools provide snippets of code and struggle with context, Blitzy ingests millions of lines of code and orchestrates thousands of agents that reason for hours to map every line-level dependency. With a complete contextual understanding of your codebase, Blitzy is ready to be deployed at the beginning of every sprint. Blitzy handles the heavy lifting, delivering over 80% of the work autonomously. The platform plans, builds, and validates premium-quality code at the speed of compute, turning months of engineering into a matter of days. It’s the secret weapon for Fortune 500 companies globally. To hear how engineering leaders are transforming the way they deliver software, visit blitzy.com. Schedule a meeting with their consultants to enable an AI-Native SDLC in your organization today. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When you’re managing $60 trillion in assets across dozens of products and 30 global jurisdictions, technical debt isn’t just an inconvenience—it’s an existential risk. Jason Adams, CTO of State Street Alpha and Charles River Development, leads 800 engineers building mission-critical trading platforms for the world’s largest asset managers. Joined by Sid Pardeshi, Co-Founder and CTO of Blitzy, he explains how State Street is using an AI-augmented SDLC to modernize decades-old systems, refactor legacy code, and dramatically increase developer productivity—without compromising the rigor required in financial services. Jason frames the strategy around three pillars: Using Blitzy’s agentic approach—iterative context building, dependency mapping, and targeted code generation—State Street compressed months of work into weeks while maintaining strict quality gates. About the Guests: Jason Adams Jason Adams is a fintech leader and technology strategist, currently serving as Interim CTO for Charles River Development and the State Street Alpha platform. He brings deep expertise in modernizing legacy fintech infrastructure into scalable, cloud-native systems that support mission-critical financial services at global scale. Previously, Jason was Head of Platform Product and Strategy at Charles River Development and CTO of Mercatus (acquired by State Street and now part of Charles River for Private Markets). He has led high-impact initiatives across engineering, product, and cloud infrastructure, with extensive experience guiding end-to-end delivery teams. Today, Jason is driving a comprehensive SaaS transformation at CRD, focused on building resilient, future-ready architectures. From scaling global engineering organizations to delivering secure, high-performance platforms, he is committed to advancing innovation, agility, and long-term growth across Charles River, State Street Alpha, and State Street. Sid Pardeshi Sid Pardeshi is a technology leader and entrepreneur, currently Co-Founder and CTO of Blitzy. He holds a Harvard MS/MBA and previously served as a Software Architect at NVIDIA, where he built deep expertise at the intersection of AI, large-scale software systems, and product innovation. At NVIDIA, Sid was recognized as a Master Inventor, earning the Inventor’s Jacket for driving AI-powered product innovation, with more than 25 U.S. patents filed across gaming, augmented reality, and virtual reality. He is also a seasoned software engineer with a strong track record in application performance optimization, delivering native client load-time improvements of up to 90%. Beyond hands-on engineering, Sid has led and coordinated software design, framework requirements, and application architecture across global teams of 500+ engineers. Today, he applies this blend of innovation, technical depth, and organizational leadership to building autonomous software development platforms that help enterprises modernize at scale. Timestamps: 00:30 – Jason on Managing $60 Trillion in Assets 01:55 – Challenges and Strategies in Financial Services 07:00 – Embracing AI for Modernization 09:10 – AI in Software Development Lifecycle 15:55 – Ensuring Quality and Compliance with AI 23:55 – AI in Operations and Incident Response 26:00 – Proactive Workflow Monitoring 26:20 – AI in SDLC: Creation to Operations 30:00 – Challenges in AI Recommendations 33:20 – Iterative Context Building with AI 36:00 – Human Side of AI Transformation 42:30 – Adopting AI Tools in Financial Services Guest Highlights: "One of the things that excites me the most right now is the ability to use an AI-augmented SDLC to drive modernization. Otherwise, with this many systems, it's too hard." — Jason "You have to invest in the non-attractive parts first. You have to build a foundation that's gonna support being able to bring on solutions and tools that could change your overall enterprise SDLC. That's a lot of work and that's a major investment." —...

Most enterprises have roadmaps stretching 3-5 years out. What if you could compress that to 1-2 years? Brian Elliot is the Co-Founder and CEO of Blitzy, an enterprise-focused autonomous software development platform tackling one of technology's toughest problems: how do you modernize 20-100 million lines of legacy code when the developers who wrote it retired 15 years ago? In this episode, Brian explores: About the Guest: Brian Elliott is CEO and Co-founder of Blitzy. A serial entrepreneur, former Infantry Officer with the 1st Ranger Battalion, and West Point graduate in Systems Engineering with a Harvard MBA, Brian brings a unique blend of military precision, engineering expertise, and entrepreneurial vision to transforming enterprise software development. As CEO, Brian leads Blitzy's mission to empower systematic AI adoption across enterprises, transforming traditional development lifecycles into AI-native workflows. Under his leadership, Blitzy has developed an agentic platform where thousands of specialized AI Agents cooperate at inference to autonomously deliver enterprise-scale code that is tested, validated, and compiled. Focused on operational deployment at scale, Brian architected the company's proven Agentic SDLC Accelerator—a structured methodology that systematically guides engineering organizations from technical validation to full-scale enterprise adoption. This framework unlocks autonomous capabilities across the complete software development lifecycle. Timestamps: 01:25 – Understanding Blitzy's AI Capabilities 03:25 – Challenges and Solutions in Enterprise Software 06:00 – The Genesis of Blitzy 07:30 – Insights from Nvidia and AI Development 11:00 – Implementing AI in Enterprise Systems 18:00 – Change Management and Customer Collaboration 20:30 – Understanding Enterprise Security Needs 25:10 – Improving Code Quality and Test Coverage 28:15 – Blitzy's Mission and Market Direction 30:10 – Challenges and Opportunities in Enterprise Software Guest Highlight: "Code is beautiful in that it's verifiable. We're following enterprise best practices—everything goes to a dev branch where a human can look at it, review it, go through a typical QA process. The first thing we're gonna do is document their code so they know what's going on, then add test cases, then develop software at scale that's highly verifiable." Get Connected: Brian Elliot on LinkedInYousuf Kahn on LinkedInIan Faison on LinkedInHungry for more tech talk? Check out past episodes at ciopod.com: Running IT Like a Growth EngineWhat Manufacturing Can Teach You About Scaling Enterprise AIWhy the Smartest CIOs Are Becoming Business StrategistsLearn more about Caspian Studios: caspianstudios.com Our Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Blitzy, the Enterprise Autonomous Software Development Platform with Infinite Code Context. Blitzy uses thousands of specialized AI agents that think for hours to understand enterprise scale codebases with millions of lines of code. Enterprise Engineering leaders start every development sprint with the Blitzy platform, bringing in their development requirements. The Blitzy platform provides a plan, then generates and pre-compiles code for each task. Blitzy delivers 80%+ of the development work autonomously, while providing a guide for the final 20% of human development work required to complete the sprint. Public companies are achieving a 5x engineering velocity increase when incorporating Blitzy as their Pre-IDE development tool, pairing it with their coding co-pilot of choice to bring an AI-Native SDLC into their org. Visit Blitzy.com and press book demo to learn how Blitzy transforms your SDLC from AI Assisted to AI Native. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Chetna explains how new automation strategies are evolving not only productivity, but the role of the CIO. Chetna emphasizes the importance of data quality and security when scaling a fast-growing company, as well as transparency and partnership in vendor relationships. About the Guest: Chetna is an award winning CIO, board member, and VC advisor with over 25 years of experience working in the Fortune 100 and serving as a 3X CIO for hyper-growth SaaS businesses. Chetna currently serves as CIO of Webflow, a hyper-growth Website Experience Platform SaaS company. Previously, she served as CDIO at Amplitude and ZoomInfo. Chetna is an advisor to prominent VC firms including Sequoia Capital, Accel, Ridge Ventures, and Mayfield and serves on the Customer Advisory Board (CAB) at Veza and, Productiv and was formerly at Snowflake and Google Cloud Platform CAB. She served on the Tech Committee with Carlyle and Thoma Bravo, and on the Advisory Board of Ninja Focus and Women & AI. She was a finalist and nominee for the Bay Area ORBIE, CIO award, a finalist for “2019 Markie’s Cultivator Award for Best Lead Management Program,” a recipient of the Delta Dental Women in Business Stevie Award of Excellence in Healthcare Transformation, and a Boeing Spirit of Excellence Award recipient. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, hiking, and skiing and has a passion for exploring different cultures. Timestamps: 01:41 - About Chetna 04:53 - Automation as a starting point 07:16 - Employee productivity and the CIO 11:25 - Discovering new AI tools 13:44 - Evolving revenue systems 22:47 - How will the CIO role evolve? 28:37 - Lightning round Guest Highlight: “ AI has really taken productivity at a whole different level now. It has really helped us drive the pace in productivity we couldn't have fathomed before the event of the content generation. It's not just content generation anymore. It's way beyond that. The velocity at which we are innovating on the product is huge.” Get Connected: Chetna Mahajan on LinkedInYousuf Kahn on LinkedInIan Faison on LinkedInHungry for more tech talk? Check out past episodes at ciopod.com: Running IT Like a Growth EngineWhat Manufacturing Can Teach You About Scaling Enterprise AIWhy the Smartest CIOs Are Becoming Business StrategistsLearn more about Caspian Studios: caspianstudios.com Our Sponsor: This episode was brought to you by Blitzy, the Enterprise Autonomous Software Development Platform with Infinite Code Context. Blitzy uses thousands of specialized AI agents that think for hours to understand enterprise scale codebases with millions of lines of code. Enterprise Engineering leaders start every development sprint with the Blitzy platform, bringing in their development requirements. The Blitzy platform provides a plan, then generates and pre-compiles code for each task. Blitzy delivers 80%+ of the development work autonomously, while providing a guide for the final 20% of human development work required to complete the sprint. Public companies are achieving a 5x engineering velocity increase when incorporating Blitzy as their Pre-IDE development tool, pairing it with their coding co-pilot of choice to bring an AI-Native SDLC into their org. Visit Blitzy.com and press book demo to learn how Blitzy transforms your SDLC from AI Assisted to AI Native. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features Chidi Alams, CIO of Just Born — the company behind candy classics like Peeps, Mike and Ike, and Hot Tamales. Chidi shares how his team is using AI, automation, and smarter data systems to modernize operations, strengthen supply chain resilience, and double the business impact of technology. It’s a conversation about what it really means to run IT like a growth engine — not just keeping the lights on, but driving strategy, efficiency, and innovation. Plus, much more: Whether you’re a CIO, IT leader, or simply curious about how AI and data are reshaping business, this episode delivers grounded, real-world insights. About the Guest: Chidi Alams, CIO at Just Born, Inc., is a transformation executive with a proven track record of leading strategic initiatives that drive operational excellence, organic growth, and digital innovation. His experience includes both Fortune 500 and private equity-backed companies. Timestamps: 02:10 Transitioning Between Industries 03:26 Role and Responsibilities of a CIO 06:05 Business Transformation and Strategy 08:12 Managing Peak Seasons and Supply Chain 14:26 Leveraging Data and AI 21:20 Talent Acquisition and Company Culture 27:51 Future of Technology and CIO Role Guest Highlights: “ A lot of how we ran the business, even during the peak season, was a tremendous amount of tribal knowledge. We can't scale based on tribal knowledge, right? So having data systems, particularly as we bring in new people into the organization, helps us to be more predictive and meet demand during peak season.” “ CIOs have to become more business centric. When you look at what's happening in large enterprises, you're seeing a fragmentation of technology leadership. I do believe that there will be a convergence at some point.” “ I'm extremely interested and have been tracking what I think is a very important trend, not just in CPG but in retail and any consumer space — even pharma — and that is how can we leverage large language models that are trained for CPG to help drive product innovation. It’s already happening.” Get Connected: Chidi Alams on LinkedInYousuf Kahn on LinkedInIan Faison on LinkedInHungry for more tech talk? Check out past episodes at ciopod.com: What Manufacturing Can Teach You About Scaling Enterprise AIWhy the Smartest CIOs Are Becoming Business StrategistsCIO Leadership in AI Security and InnovationLearn more about Caspian Studios: caspianstudios.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

CIO Classified is back! More CIO secrets. More battle-tested IT wisdom. Straight from leading CIOs across a wide range of industries. In this episode, host Ian Faison and co-host Yousuf Khan dive into the deep end of technology leadership in manufacturing. Ben Davis, Executive Vice President of IT at Cambria, joins the show to talk about his sweeping digital transformation at the quartz manufacturing leader, and shares how his startup past helped him turn IT from a reactive function to a trusted business advisor. Plus much more: This episode is a must-listen for the modern CIO looking to bridge the gap between traditional industries and modern technologies without sacrificing security or business continuity. About the Guest: Ben Davis, EVP IT, Cambria, is a technical leader who is passionate about introducing new technology, improved processes and unexplored data sets to businesses in a manner that allows them to achieve scalable revenue growth. He does this by helping business-minded technologists use automation, prioritization and critical thinking to deliver technology, process improvement and data in a high-value, cost-effective way. Timestamps: 02:30 – From startups to manufacturing: Applying entrepreneurial DNA 07:00 – Communicating tech value across the organization 09:30 – Why AI in manufacturing is a game-changer 15:00 – Cybersecurity training, scorekeeping, and zero-trust realities 17:30 – Modernizing legacy infrastructure in manufacturing 23:00 – AI adoption vs. business architecture readiness 26:00 – Staying close to the customer experience as CIO 28:00 – Building, retaining, and empowering high-impact IT teams 31:00 – Governance, shadow IT, and the rise of internal agents 35:00 – AI tooling, data gaps, and minimizing technical debt 38:00 – Manufacturing success, excitement, and the human side of tech Guest Highlights: “ I think everybody under spends on cybersecurity. If I had an unlimited budget, I’d put the money towards that. I would also spend the money on data scientists, data modeling, data governance, mass data management to ensure that our data was ready to really take advantage of AI.” Get Connected: Ben Davis on LinkedInYousuf Kahn on LinkedInIan Faison on LinkedInHungry for more tech talk? Check out past episodes at ciopod.com: Why the Smartest CIOs Are Becoming Business StrategistsCIO Leadership in AI Security and InnovationAI-Driven Workplace TransformationLearn more about Caspian Studios: caspianstudios.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Eric Johnson, CIO at PagerDuty, shares why today’s most impactful CIOs are evolving into strategic business leaders. He explains how AI is driving a fundamental shift in how IT organizations operate—moving from reactive support functions to proactive, value-creating business enablers. About the Guest: Eric Johnson is the Chief Information Officer at PagerDuty, responsible for PagerDuty’s critical IT infrastructure, data management and enterprise systems. Prior to joining PagerDuty, he was the CIO at SurveyMonkey, DocuSign and Talend. Before that, Eric spent 12 years at Informatica driving the information technology vision and strategy as the company scaled to a modern SaaS architecture. He is an active advisor and board member to several early-stage companies and a regular contributor to IT thought leadership. Timestamps: *(05:20) - Embrace shadow IT and AI tools *(18:40) - Changing role of the CIO *(30:00) - Security and cybersecurity awareness *(33:35) - Future of automation and AI Guest Highlights: “In the CIO org, they need to be business experts as much as the partners that they work with… because AI and the use of it and finding those high value use cases, it's gonna take folks in the CIO org to be a lot more knowledgeable about how the company operates and processes.” “Obviously, certain roles are going to change much more than others, but I think across the board, roles are going to change.” “As these changes come, how do you reorient the organization—the humans in the organization—to be able to find that higher value work?” Get Connected: Eric Johnson on LinkedInIan Faison on LinkedInResources: www.pagerduty.comCIO Leadership in AI Security and InnovationAI-Driven Workplace TransformationThe CIO Roadmap to Executive Leadershipcaspianstudios.comCan’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Siroui Mushegian, CIO at Barracuda, shares how she’s building a smart, secure foundation for AI—-from setting up an AI council, to governing agents, and creating employee guidelines that protect innovation. She also shares how AI is transforming IT operations and unlocking new levels of productivity across the enterprise. About the Guest: Siroui Mushegian is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Barracuda. Siroui joined Barracuda most recently from BlackLine, where she was responsible for all aspects of BlackLine's internal corporate IT. Before BlackLine, she held executive IT leadership roles at PBS’s WNET New York Public Media, the NBA, Ralph Lauren, and Time, Inc. Bringing more than 20 years of executive and IT leadership experience, Siroui has successfully built strong operational environments that eliminate technology silos, elevated the maturity and impact of technology within her enterprises and delivered measurable and scalable business outcomes. Siroui holds a Master of Business Administration in Management and Strategy from Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business and a bachelor’s in mathematics and finance from University of Connecticut. Timestamps: *(04:10) - Skills for Future CIOs *(07:00) - Barracuda’s AI and Automation Projects *(08:50) - Tips for AI Security *(33:25) - The Importance of Community and Collaboration Guest Highlights: “ A lot of people are worried they are going to work themselves right out of a job. It remains very important for us to keep our position as thought leaders to hold that mantle high.” “ Your partnerships with your colleagues and leaders across the enterprise will help you get more done than any AI agent will.” “ I love the concept of the education we're getting ready to roll out in a curated way to people who are going to take these tools and come up with solutions that I could never in my life think of because I don't sit in their shoes every day.” Get Connected: Siroui Mushegian on LinkedInIan Faison on LinkedInResources: barracuda.comAI-Driven Workplace TransformationThe CIO Roadmap to Executive LeadershipBest Proactive Cybersecurity Strategies for CIOscaspianstudios.comCan’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Saket Srivastava is the Chief Information Officer at work management platform Asana. Saket oversees Asana's IT organization, including optimizing technology systems and processes, connecting technology strategy to overarching business strategy, and ensuring that technology infrastructure supports organizational goals. Previously, Saket held executive positions at Square, Guidewire Software, and other leading technology companies. Saket holds a Master of Computer Applications (MCA) from the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, and an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. Timestamps: *(01:30) - Asana's Impact and Internal Operation *(08:15) - AI and Employee Experience *(13:25) - Collaboration and Cross-Departmental Partnership *(19:05) - Future Trends and Skills Guest Highlights: “When you add business understanding with technology understanding, that makes a deadly combination where you can serve and help move the needle for your business.” “The reality is we get sold all the time, every day. When you show up as a practitioner, as a peer, and you're ready to talk about the good, the bad, the ugly, there's a lot of power.” “ Good news is bad news being delivered early. It's so important to be able to create a healthy environment where you can talk about those risks.” Get Connected: Saket Srivastava on LinkedInIan Faison on LinkedInResources: http://asana.com/The CIO Roadmap to Executive LeadershipBest Proactive Cybersecurity Strategies for CIOsEngineering Leadership for Scale, Agility, and Momentumcaspianstudios.comCan’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Rich Horwath, CEO of Strategic Thinking Institute and best-selling author, shares strategies that help CIOs to elevate their strategic thinking—providing a roadmap for transitioning from technical leaders to visionary business executives. Drawing from his advisory work with top-tier technology leaders, Horwoth breaks down the critical skills needed to move beyond operational management and position themselves as strong CEO candidates. About the Guest: Rich Horwath is the founder and CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute where he facilitates strategy workshops to help executive leadership teams think, plan, and act strategically to set direction, create advantage, and maximize their leadership performance. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of eight books on strategic thinking, including his new book: STRATEGIC: The Skill to Set Direction, Create Advantage, and Achieve Executive Excellence. He’s published two articles in the Harvard Business Review this past year and has helped more than one million leaders develop their strategic thinking and planning skills over the past two decades in pursuit of his vision to teach the world to be strategic. Timestamps: *(01:35) - The CIO to CEO Journey *(07:25) - Innovation and Competitive Strategy *(28:45) - Future State Thinking for CIOs *(44:05) - Transitioning from CIO to CEO Guest Highlights: “The great CIOs understand that it's not about copying. It's about creating and innovating by understanding the competition.” "If you're really being strategic, you're going to tick a lot of people off internally and externally." “What are we trying to achieve? And how are we going to do it? So planning can be too complex sometimes, but it boils down to those two questions.” Get Connected: www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwathwww.linkedin.com/in/ianfaisonResources: www.strategyskills.comBest Proactive Cybersecurity Strategies for CIOsEngineering Leadership for Scale, Agility, and MomentumAI Business Strategy for CIOswww.caspianstudios.comCan’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Carl Froggett, CIO at Deep Instinct, breaks down the AI-driven disruptions reshaping the cybersecurity landscape. From navigating complex security architectures to busting big data myths, Carl offers strategic advice for CIOs and CISOs on staying one step ahead in a rapidly evolving tech world. About the Guest: Carl Froggett, CIO of Deep Instinct, brings nearly 30 years of experience to the role. Previously, as Head of Global Infrastructure Defense and CISO Cybersecurity Services at Citi, he led risk reduction efforts across devices and networks in 100+ countries. Now, he oversees Deep Instinct’s infrastructure growth, internal systems, security, and processes to support global expansion and strategic partnerships. Timestamps: *(08:10) - The Impact of AI on Cybersecurity *(25:45) - Rising IT Spending and Persistent Breaches *(28:00) - Challenges and Strategies for Modern CIOs and CISOs *(32:10) - The Future of Cybersecurity and Deep Learning Guest Highlights: “It takes a level of leadership to say, ‘Hey, our investment over here has been great for the last 5, 6, 7, or 10 years, but that is no longer good enough. We need to replace, we need to reinvest, and we need to retrain.’” “We need to be more aggressive on the front-foot as the defenders. Just protecting your endpoint is not enough—your endpoint's the last resort. If your endpoint fails, game over.” “When opportunity knocks, you say, ‘Come on in.’ It doesn't matter if it’s a role that you were hired to do and it's outside of that role, say yes and get involved. More experience leads to you knowing more people.” Get Connected: www.linkedin.com/in/carlfroggettwww.linkedin.com/in/ianfaisonResources: www.deepinstinct.comEngineering Leadership for Scale, Agility, and MomentumAI Business Strategy for CIOsBusiness-First IT in the AI Erawww.caspianstudios.comCan’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Jason LaFollette, CTO at Yext, shares his product-driven approach to leading agile teams, maintaining tech debt, and using a “top-down, bottom-up” style to keep productivity and momentum high. About the Guest: Jason LaFollette is Yext's Chief of Technology. Jason joined the company in 2014 and built out the enterprise consulting side of the business before moving over to product engineering and technology. Prior to joining Yext, Jason was CEO and co-founder of Citrrus, a professional services company specializing in mobile app development and wearable devices, which Yext acquired as the company's first acquisition. Timestamps: *(02:30) - Understanding Yext's Business Model *(04:55) - Leadership and Team Management Strategies *(14:20) - Scaling and Technical Debt Management *(24:00) - Adopting New Technologies and AI Guest Highlights: “What I'm looking for is momentum with the teams, momentum with the people, momentum with the systems. If you get fixated on the tactical parts... It's a false sense that you're doing something great, but you’ll hit a ceiling quickly in terms of productivity.” “We only want process when it accelerates us… Once we've proven that we know how to do it manually by keeping smart and talented people in the loop and making good situational decisions is our secret sauce to scale with a lot less pain.” “If something is important to us, the company, or the management team and we aren't measuring and watching it, other people aren't going to value it either. I've come to adopt a mix of top-down and bottom-up leadership where we can't have all-of-one or all-of-the-other, or everything falls apart.” Get Connected: www.linkedin.com/in/jasonlafollettewww.linkedin.com/in/ianfaisonResources: www.yext.comAI Business Strategy for CIOsBusiness-First IT in the AI EraEmpowering Citizen Developers and Reshaping Business with AIwww.caspianstudios.comCan’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Naveen Zutshi, CIO at Databricks, shares his strategies for successful AI implementation. This must-listen episode is perfect for tech leaders wanting to learn how to craft an effective AI strategy, bridge gaps in tech teams, and drive innovation in your organization. About the Guest: Naveen Zutshi is the CIO at Databricks, previously CIO at Palo Alto Networks where he managed analytics, applications, and infrastructure. Before that, he was SVP of Infrastructures & Ops at Gap and held roles at a SaaS startup and Cisco. Timestamps: *(04:40) - Cybersecurity and Data Privacy *(20:00) - Ensuring Data Quality and AI Strategy *(28:45) - Future Trends and Innovations in Tech *(31:35) - Advice for CIOs Guest Highlights: “There's a significant amount of pull from CEOs on the CIO to define the AI strategy for their company. As technology leaders… We have an opportunity to actually provide data and AI strategy, and then help influence that strategy towards ultimate business goals.” “Often, we want to move quickly into the AI world but then realize our data set is in bad shape… First and foremost, you need a clear data strategy and you need to execute on the strategy.” “Having business and users buy-in is key — making sure that you are solving for the right problem rather than looking for a problem because you now have a solution.” Get Connected: www.linkedin.com/in/nzutshiwww.linkedin.com/in/ianfaisonResources: www.databricks.comhttps://bit.ly/4frJ93twww.caspianstudios.comCan’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Cisco Sanchez, SVP and CIO at Qualcomm, shares his business-first philosophy to technology cultivated over 25 years of IT experience. Sanchez emphasizes the importance of IT professionals loving both technology and the business, creating roadmaps that align with business goals, and utilizing frameworks like Charlie Feld's approach. About the Guest: Cisco Sanchez is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Qualcomm Incorporated. As the leader of Qualcomm’s global IT organization, Cisco is responsible for leading the strategic direction for IT infrastructure, Information Security & Risk Management, Cyber Resiliency, Enterprise Applications, and End User Productivity solutions. Cisco is also responsible for driving large scale Pre-Silicon, Post Silicon and Enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives improving Qualcomm’s agility, leverage, efficiency and security. He collaborates with the executive and business unit leadership and focuses on enabling forward-looking innovative technology solutions to achieve Qualcomm’s vision and deliver strategic value. Guest Highlight: "We love technology. I love technology. I'm a developer, but we should also love the business and understand it thoroughly. So when I first came in, my goal was to not make drastic changes, but understand the business to the best ability possible. I use a framework that looks at the models and try to understand, here's what the business does, here's how it does it, the technology underneath, here's how the enablement activity works. And I think by doing that, it gives you a different, deeper perspective of how the business is interacting and what they do.” Timestamps: Links & Resources: www.linkedin.com/in/ianfaisonwww.linkedin.com/in/ciscosanchezwww.qualcomm.comEmpowering Citizen Developers and Reshaping Business with AIModernizing Legacy Systems with AIPowerful Partnerships That Push CIOs to the Next Levelwww.caspianstudios.comCan’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Carter Busse, CIO at Workato, explores how AI is reshaping business decisions and empowering citizen developers. With over 20 years of IT leadership experience, Carter shares real-world automation examples and advice on navigating point solution vendors, and also discusses orchestrating data across systems, democratizing automation, and future trends that will revolutionize the industry. About the Guest: Carter Busse, CIO at Workato, is one of the leading innovators in IT/Business partnerships in automation. An accomplished IT executive, Carter brings a rich history in technology, including leading IT during three IPOs—Excite@Home, Salesforce.com, and MobileIron. Carter was hired by Marc Benioff personally as employee #70 at Salesforce. Over the years, he has developed a specialty in constructing highly effective, collaborative teams (90+), executing business strategies, and driving revenue growth while reducing operating costs. Carter is a sought-after advisor of IT leaders around the country, a Bay Area Orbie CIO Award winner, and listed on the Forbes CIO Next list of the top 50 CIOs in the United States. Guest Highlight: “Architecture is key. Very key. So, you set up the right infrastructure in a secure place to let people iterate in a safe place—that takes a lot of architecture. You don't want stuff being put into production that these guys built and break. Who gets the first call? It's IT. So, I really feel like our role is changing from doing more building and more enabling and more architecture.” Timestamps: Links & Resources: www.linkedin.com/in/ianfaisonwww.linkedin.com/in/carterbussewww.workato.comModernizing Legacy Systems with AIPowerful Partnerships That Push CIOs to the Next LevelInvestment Priorities for the Transformative CIOwww.caspianstudios.comCan’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

In this episode, Sheila Anderson, CIO at Aflac, discusses how the company is using AI to modernize while handling legacy systems. Sheila highlights key initiatives such as digital claims processing, establishing an AI center of excellence, and transforming internal operations. About the Guest: Shelia Anderson is an information technology executive with extensive Fortune 100 CIO, services, and consulting experience, particularly in Financial Services and Insurance. Partnering with C-level stakeholders, she drives business change and digitally enables organizations through multi-million dollar technology strategies, agile development, and support initiatives for applications and infrastructure. She is well-versed in a range of technologies, from legacy systems to cloud, AI, and LLMs, focusing on maturing organizations through cloud migration, agile transformation, and digital enablement. With a significant passion and proven results in mentoring and developing talent in STEM, supporting women in technology, and building exceptional teams, Shelia has demonstrated organizational leadership over 2000+ employees across multiple global locations and managed budgets exceeding $600 million. Guest Highlights: “[When it comes to AI] start with your business. Simple, really. Understand your business, your business challenges, and your business opportunities. Always start with ‘why’ and anything that you deliver from there, the closer you can tie the work that you're doing to the business value, the more successful both you and your company will be at the end of the day.” Timestamps: *(01:40) - Aflac’s AI Journey *(03:55) - AI at Scale: Transforming Aflac *(09:00) - Building Automation and Innovation into Culture *(26:15) - Leadership Insights and Advice *(31:15) - Future Trends and Strategies Links & Resources: www.linkedin.com/in/ianfaisonwww.linkedin.com/in/sheliaandersonwww.aflac.commyduck.sproutel.comPowerful Partnerships That Push CIOs to the Next LevelInvestment Priorities for the Transformative CIOThe Future of Employee Experiencewww.caspianstudios.comCan’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Just like the role of the CIO has transitioned from a back-office data manager to a business enabler, how CIOs build and maintain internal and external partnerships has also greatly evolved. In this episode, Madlin Sadler, COO of the International Rescue Committee, and Colleen Berube, CIO and SVP of Operations at Zendesk, draw insights from their own collaboration to talk about the many ways partnerships can be powerful—from bringing in new perspectives to providing resources and solutions—as well as share their advice on building strategic partnerships for today's CIO. --------- Quotes “The need to have great partnerships with people who are helping us push our thinking has been more critical than ever… particularly for us, meaning that we transform and innovate in a way that I don't think we could if we didn't know what was out there and what the world was capable of achieving with us. Partnerships for us are really pushing us to the next level.” - Madlin Sadler, COO of the International Rescue Committee “Part of the value that you can bring as a technology leader is really not about the technology at all—it's about having the visibility to see what's happening in different parts of the business, and you can bring those things together and influence different thinking by looking more holistically at what could be happening in the company.” - Colleen Berube, CIO and SVP of Operations, Zendesk --------- Time Stamps: * (1:46) Meet Madlin and Colleen, and learn about their roles * (6:38) How the role of CIO has evolved to include operations * (11:21) Emphasizing productivity in the hybrid workplace * (16:46) Why internal and external partnerships are important for success * (23:27) Secrets every CIO and exec should know * (24:53) Madlin and Colleen ask each other questions -------- Sponsor This podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com. -------- Links LinkedInLinkedInLinkedInInternational Rescue CommitteeZendeskCaspian Studios

Spending money is easy when investment opportunities are everywhere, but it’s harder to predict if something is worth the cost. In this episode, IT leaders from the public and private sectors tell us about the times their investments paid off—from new technology to the employee experience. You’ll hear advice from Tim Chester, VP of IT and CIO at the University of Georgia, and Carrie Rasmussen, CIO at Ceridian, on how to keep pace with the increasing demand for digital transformation, and much more. --------- Quotes “Frankly, it’s time to invest… AI machine learning and science hires are key, and we're investing in our high-performance computing to support faculty in those important fields.” - Tim Chester, VP of IT, CIO, at the University of Georgia “We do have to put certain initiatives on the back burner, but more importantly, we are being asked how do we take inefficiencies and repurpose them so that it's not a budget cut, but a reallocation of funds through proper harvesting.” - Carrie Rasmussen, CIO at Ceridian --------- Time Stamps: * (1:46) Meet Tim and Carrie, and learn about their roles * (5:35) How to priortize spending and when to reallocate funds * (20:54) Peer leadership advice for discussing budgets * (23:32) Investing in human capital with DEI efforts * (35:40) Tim and Carrie ask each other questions * (35:40) Secrets every CIO should know -------- Sponsor This podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com. -------- Links LinkedInLinkedInLinkedInUniversity of GeorgiaCeridianCaspian Studios