Global Technology Operations CIO/CTO
Managing Digital Transformation through strategy & execution. One company at a time!
I’m a visionary IT leader (CIO / CTO / VP of Technology) with with 20+ years of progressive experience leading entrepreneurial startups and Fortune 500 divisions to breakthrough levels of revenue, growth, and profitability -- with heavy emphasis on leading global technology operations and transformations, end-to-end states of product development, collaborating with a strategic and tactical team for M&A with integrations and divestitures, heading IT strategic sourcing, and leading a global PMO organization.
Recognized throughout career for an inclusive, inspirational, and positive leadership style -- coupled with unsurpassed skills as a market strategist able to help organizations identify changing customer needs, capitalize on untapped markets, raise the bar on innovation, and disrupt existing industry ecosystems.
I am adept at bridging gaps between business and technical teams and developing strong business case alignment, relentless in my execution, resourceful, and drive collaboration to deliver results in challenging situations.
MY STRENGHTS
Ambition
I'm passionate about what I do, and never do things half-heartedly.
Precision
I believe it's pointless to do something if you're not going to do it well.
Assertive
I'm not afraid to ask the difficult questions and have the difficult conversations.
Autodesk - Director, IT Operations, Vendor Management, End User Services and M&A
March 2020 - April 2022
Define and deliver value to members and business partners in alignment with Autodesk's mission. Responsible for the development and management of strategic sourcing strategies for IT and Services categories. Lead a team of direct reports in delivering value from Total Health Spend Optimization. Work closely with Senior Management and/or their designees to manage spend in excess of $2.5 B+ in annual spend as part of Autodesk's program-wide procurement strategy, while staying current on external and internal influences that may impact the Portfolio as well as the larger Sourcing Organization team. Identify relationship, strategic sourcing and process improvement opportunities that align with business partners goals. Owns and builds senior management relationships.
Symantec - Director, M&A Integrations and Divestitures
January 2017 - March 2020
Reporting to the CIO and CFO, led to successful mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures of 13+ companies (valued at $10.2B) while developing, enhancing, and executing on a M&A Playbook. I am a a motivated leader who combines strong Business Operations skills with M&A experience, who has the experience to lead the integration and operational aspects of the company’s acquisitions and divestitures across all phases from target origination to delivery of integration. I held responsibility for ensuring the success of acquisitions, strategic investments, and partnerships, lead the team in structuring, planning, and successfully integrating large-scale partnerships and acquisitions. I worked with senior leadership across various Business Units and Functions, external stakeholders, and Board Members to drive strategic alignment
FinTech Startup - CIO, IT Operations, Product Development and leading Strategic M&A Growth Initiatives
April 2022 - Present
I lead a team of IT professionals to strategically plan, develop, organize, direct, and evaluate all information technology needs for the organization, while ensuring the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data, systems, and technology. I also provide for information security across the organization. while, championing increased efficiency and integration of internal-facing and customer-facing technology throughout the organization, remote delivery, product management, project management, lease management, and site selection and disposition of facilities functions,
VISA - Vice President, Global Network Interoperability Services
Led a team of 12 direct reports and several hundred employees with an annual operational spend of $1.2B supporting the global network services environment to manage, collaborate and address network interoperability and portability issues across heterogeneous platforms ensuring a 5(9’s) availability
Coordinated with multiple peer groups (internal and external) to develop a guide to integrate with core banking transformations to support VISA, as well as planning and developing IT architectures to facilitate those changes. Implemented a data-centric infrastructure performance metric to support and achieve high availability through distributed computing technology for mission-critical computing requiring seamless fail over systems and using fault tolerance for high reliability to transact 2 billion transactions/second
Ernst & Young - Director, Global Network Services & Management Consultant
Led staff of technology professionals in the design, delivery, and support of IT infrastructure and operations services; desktop/laptop, service desk, cellular, platforms, middleware, database, network, Telephony, NOC, unified communications, Storage, mainframe/Wang, production control, data center facilities, automation tools, batch, IT architecture, strategy, governance, and the IT PMO for the global technology group to support a global IT operation across 182 countries and 120,000 employees.
EDUCATION
Wharton @ University of Pennsylvania
Executive Chief Technology Officer Leadership Program 2021 - 2022
Dominican University of California
MBA - Strategic Leadership 2005 - 2007
Rajasthan University, India
Masters Degree in Accounting and Commerce
Delhi University, India
Bachelors Degree in Accounting and Economics
TESTIMONIALS
Stuart Tanenberg
Past President, Board of Trustees at Marin Community College District
Kumar's international business experience gives him a practical first hand perspective of the global market place. As a strategic thinker and insightful leader, Kumar is able to tackle and resolve complex business problems.
Joseph M. Bugajski
Chief Data Officer (CDO)
Kumar lead network interoperability for Visa. His knowledge and skills provided "C" and Board level assurance that the world's largest financial network remained interoperable, highly performing, reliable and secure. He is a brilliant technical leader and collaborator