Modern computing or “IT” that we know of today, would have been impossible without women. Weather be it Ada Lovelace the inventor of scientific computing or Radia Perlman who otherwise is known as the mother of internet, and Hedy Lamarr the creator of "secret communication system" that laid the foundation stone of numerous modern tech like GPS, WIFI and bluetooth. Today's technology leveraged globe is the blessing of numerous pioneering women.

Looking at the contemporary corporate world, the valuable guidance of the women CIOs are equally appreciable and noteworthy. That being said, in this article let's talk about 5 leading CIOs that inspire the modern technology world. 

Aarti Shah, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Information and Digital Officer, Eli Lilly and Company

Aarti started as a senior statistician at Lilly in 1994 and was promoted to research scientist in 1999. In November 2009, she was named vice president of global statistical sciences and advanced analytics. She took up additional responsibilities as vice president of biometrics in 2012.

She was promoted to global brand development leader in Lilly's Biomedicines Business Unit in 2013, where she managed a team through worldwide regulatory filings, approvals, and launches for an immunology drug. In 2016, she was elevated to senior vice president and chief information officer, and in January of 2018, she was assigned to her present position. She has held functional and corporate leadership responsibilities in the United States and throughout the world over her career.

Annapurna Vishwanathan, CIO, Cummins India

Annapurna Vishwanathan joined as the CIO of Cummins India in 2021. Cummins India is a Fortune 500 company that specializes in the design and manufacture of engines and other mechanical components. Vishwanathan is in charge of IT and technology that support company operations and other key responsibilities in this new post. She has over 15 years of technology, software development, and digital transformation expertise. She was the chief of the digital function of HCCB India before joining Cummins India.

Harmeen Mehta, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, BT

Harmeen Mehta is the Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at BT Group Plc. She is in charge of driving digital innovation for consumers and new markets, as well as streamlining the telecom and incubating new companies and generating new digital solutions and products.

Mehta formerly worked for Bharti Airtel in India as the Global CIO and Head of Cloud and Security businesses. She has extensive expertise driving Bharti Airtel's digital, engineering, IT, and innovation transformations. She formerly held CIO positions at BBVA, HSBC, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch before joining Bharti Airtel.

Kirti Patil, Joint President - IT & CTO, Kotak Life

Kirti Patil is in charge of Kotak Life's digital and technology functions. She is a member of Kotak Life's executive management council, which oversees the firm's expansion. Kirti began her career with Kotak Life in 2003. She has been crucial in providing Kotak Life's IT strategy a leading edge throughout the years by introducing various transformative projects to improve customer experience, including mobile based selling, video based customer calling, OCR/ICR based BPM, RPA, BOTs, and so on.

Kirti has been an early adopter of a number of technologies, including data center virtualisation, hyper-converged infrastructure, flash storage, data reduction technologies, and block level replication, to mention a few.

Annie Mathew, CIO, Digital Transformation Leader, Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetables

Annie John Mathew is the CIO of Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd. She has worked in companies such as NOCIL – a Shell-Mafatlal firm (India), Bharat Shell (India), Datacom Systems (NZ), Fonterra (NZ), and Xenacom during the course of her 25-year career (NZ).

She has largely focused on technology enablement from a business perspective and has also worked for technology firms.Mathew’s significant achievements include SAP implementation, creation of central IT organization, consolidation of incident and service management into a single window in Mother Dairy, secondary sales systems with SFA, Point of Sales at retail outlets, etc.

Promoting C-suite diversity

Today, the issue of gender diversity in technology has gained a lot of attention in the boardroom and many firms are taking initiatives to promote C-suite diversity, the percentage of women in technology leadership roles remains alarmingly low. According to a Nasscom survey published in 2018, India's technology industry employs almost 3.8 million individuals, with women accounting for nearly 1.3 million (34 percent). This figure is significantly higher than India's overall female labor share (24 percent).

In the days ahead, more women are required to lead the technology segment for a diversified future.