Sree Anand Ratnasinghe is Director and Leader Customer Success at IBM. She is a pioneer in IBM’s cloud-native metamorphosis in her roles — Customer Success, Customer Pre-Sales, Professional Services, and Enterprise Client Cloud Adoption. For the past 5 years, her focus has been collaborating with over 300 clients at Fortune 2000, multinational companies, and government entities on their cloud architecture adoption.
Sree's mission is to help organizations transform by adopting modern technology, modern delivery practices, and cultural behaviors to accelerate business outcomes.
Especially for the WomenTech Network, Sree agreed to give an interview and share her story.
Are you excited to be among the speakers at the WomenTech Global Conference 2021 and what motivated you to join our community of 100 000 women in tech, minorities, and allies?
I can’t wait to see everyone at Women Tech 2021!!! Connection, collaboration, and community are my themes for the year. We need to support one another - with the world now virtual, the boundaries for collaboration and networking are limitless! I’ve been supported in my career by many great mentors. Now, I’m motivated to give back, support others and help them grow diverse, inclusive networks! I love helping others succeed, and being a part of WomenTech fits right in with this aspiration.
Second, technology is evolving so rapidly -- grounded in Cloud and Artificial Intelligence -- I was super excited to join WomenTech because of the technical leaders who are pioneers in their topics, sharing their expertise, ideas, and stories of transformation!
Share with us about your background, your journey in tech, and what inspired you to develop your career in this direction?
I was drawn to problem-solving at a young age, focused on Math and English in High School. I majored in computer science at Slippery Rock University in PA (yes, that’s a real place!) and went to Carnegie Mellon University for my Master’s Degree in Information Networking. Weaving business and tech together has always been my passion. During my time at CMU, I also pursued business courses.
This led me to roles at IBM, where I first started in software development. I moved quickly across a series of roles, and now focus on helping customers transform and achieve their business outcomes and acceleration using Cloud and Artificial Intelligence. I also love leading, growing and coaching diverse technical teams, and creating the conditions for these teams to learn and do their best work. I also love bringing diverse resources and technology to bear to solve really hard problems for customers!
Who would you advise to attend the Global Conference and why?
Simply put, Women Tech is THE largest conference for women, minorities, and allies in the Tech industry! It’s a great venue for networking, joining and building communities, and learning about the latest tech trends. These days when we are all remote, it can be isolating. It’s more important than ever for us to refresh and renew our community and connection during these times.
As part of the conference, you’ll get to hear from industry-leading speakers and role models from many companies and universities. You can choose from tech topics, networking sessions, and leadership sessions! Padma Chukka and I will be leading a leadership session full of practical hints and tips -- Want to reach your full potential? How to lead in Cloud and AI!
Get your ticket to WomenTech Global Conference in June 2021 to enjoy Sree's and Padma's talk, and learn from other inspiring speakers.
