Leaders in AI

With more than 30 years of technology leadership and extensive experience in the automotive industry, Sanjay brings a deep understanding of AI and machine learning applications to SymphonyAI. He has a particular focus on developing solutions at the intersection of devices, sensors, cloud solutions, and data integration.

Before joining SymphonyAI, Sanjay served as president and CEO at Cerence, leading its 2019 spin-out from Nuance. Sanjay was responsible for day-to-day operations and financial performance at Cerence, which has more than 60 automotive customers that use its technology in more than 350 million vehicles globally.

Before Cerence, Sanjay served as president of the Connected Services Division and chief technology officer of Harman Industries International until 2019. Between 2010 and 2019, he served as president and chief executive officer of Symphony Teleca Corporation. Harman acquired Symphony Teleca in January 2015. Sanjay Dhawan was responsible for the day-to-day operations of Symphony Teleca and its overall financial performance. Dhawan joined Symphony Teleca from Aricent, where he served as president and chief operating officer. Aricent is a KKR-owned privately held company with global operations in over 25 countries and more than 10,000 employees. At Aricent, he was responsible for the company’s strategy, sales, marketing, and the management and oversight of several high-growth business units and various functional units.

Before Aricent, Dhawan was the chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Inkra Networks, a company credited with defining the virtual networking market segment. Dhawan also held chief strategy, development, sales, and management roles at Netopia, StarNet, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Dhawan has authored several networking-related publications and books and chaired the IEEE 802 and ANSI X3T9 standards sub-groups. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Brunel University, England, and a bachelor of science degree in electronics and communications from REC Kurukshetra, India.

As chief technology officer, Raj drives SymphonyAI’s technology roadmap and execution. He leads the engineering team that builds the Eureka Gen AI platform, SymphonyAI’s award-winning data and AI platform that supports the rapid design, development, and deployment of enterprise-scale, vertical AI applications, and gen AI copilots. Raj’s team includes AI researchers and ML scientists working on cutting-edge predictive and generative AI models for high-value “vertical use cases” in critical industry sectors, including retail, CPG, financial services, manufacturing, enterprise IT, and media. Raj oversees the tooling and enforcement of enterprise security and privacy and is responsible for AI policies for SymphonyAI’s offerings. Previously, Raj was SymphonyAI’s SVP of Engineering and head of AI and machine learning. 

With almost 20 years of AI/ML engineering and research experience, Shukla also has extensive enterprise AI SaaS experience from his engineering leadership roles at Microsoft, where his successful 14-year career included leading global AI science and engineering organizations across Azure, Dynamics 365, MSR and the search and advertising divisions. At Microsoft, Raj helped PowerBI, Power Platform, and Dynamics365 grow into multi-billion-dollar businesses and market leaders in their categories and built some of the first generative AI copilots Microsoft announced in the enterprise domain. Raj has extensive experience in AI/ML across search, advertising, and enterprise AI and has built several successful AI SaaS products in both consumer and business domains. 

Raj holds a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Texas, Austin, and a bachelor of technology degree in computer science from IIT, Kanpur.

As chief financial officer, Ravi is responsible for SymphonyAI’s financial functions, including accounting, audit, corporate finance, tax, treasury, and investor relations activities, and partners with SymphonyAI business leaders to execute on the company’s profitable growth strategy. His career spans more than 25 years of varied experience in financial management, business leadership, and corporate strategy.

Before joining SymphonyAI, Ravi served as CFO for several leading technology and SaaS companies, including Certinia, Ooma, and Gigamon. Throughout his career, he has been instrumental in scaling the organizations and enhancing operational effectiveness while driving significant business growth. As a seasoned finance leader, he has successfully led three companies to initial public offerings (IPO’s) on NYSE/NASDAQ and has facilitated two major sales transactions.

Ravi developed his financial expertise by working in public accounting firms like Deloitte & Touche and was recently named one of the top 25 CFOs in San Francisco by Finance and Investing (2023).

He holds CPA/CA designations in the USA (inactive), Canada, and India, and earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Garhwal in India.

Theresa leads global marketing at SymphonyAI, driving growth, elevating brand visibility, and positioning the company as the leader in delivering AI applications purpose-built for the real, high-impact challenges facing finance, retail, manufacturing, and beyond. Her focus spans go-to-market strategy, product marketing, analyst relations, and integrated programs that accelerate enterprise AI adoption.

Before joining SymphonyAI, Theresa was VP of Product Marketing at Conviva, where she led global marketing across multiple lines of business, including telecom, media, and new vertical expansion. She previously held senior marketing leadership roles at Twin Health and ASAPP, shaping brand, category positioning, and growth strategies in digital health and AI-powered customer experience.

Earlier in her career, Theresa served as Head of Product and Growth Marketing at Cisco Jasper, helping to define the Internet of Things (IoT) category and scaling the business through a successful acquisition. She has also held senior marketing roles at early-stage and public companies, with a proven track record of building high-performing teams and launching platforms that reshape industries.

In addition to her corporate leadership, Theresa serves as a volunteer CMO for a national nonprofit focused on workforce development and technology equity.

Nabitha Rao is the Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO) at SymphonyAI, where she leads the company’s global IT strategy and organization. She oversees IT services and operations, enterprise systems, cloud operations, and security, while spearheading transformation initiatives that advance platform modernization and SymphonyAI’s corporate AI strategy.

With nearly two decades of IT leadership experience, Nabitha has held senior roles at GitLab and RingCentral, where she guided enterprise transformations through hyper-growth, public-company readiness, and M&A integrations. She is recognized for building high-performing global teams, scaling enterprise applications such as Quote-to-Cash, ServiceNow, and Workday, and aligning technology investments tightly to business goals.

At SymphonyAI, Nabitha is focused on embedding the company’s own AI capabilities into business and IT systems to elevate the employee experience and accelerate the measurable value delivered to customers across SymphonyAI’s vertical AI businesses.

Tom Brown serves as Chief Human Resources Officer at SymphonyAI, leading global people strategy, culture, and talent development to support the company’s rapid growth in enterprise AI.

With an international career spanning Europe, Asia, and the U.S., Tom has led HR functions at Dell, Vodafone, Juniper Networks, eBay, Automation Anywhere, Coupa Software, and Druva.

He specializes in building scalable HR operations for high-growth businesses and driving employee engagement through transformation. Tom earned his MBA from Cambridge University’s Judge Business School.

Guy Colpitts leads global legal affairs at SymphonyAI as Chief Legal Officer, supporting the company’s growth and transformation in enterprise technology. With more than 20 years of experience in the sector, Guy oversees corporate governance, intellectual property strategy, compliance, and complex business transactions.

Previously, Guy served as General Counsel for Gigamon, DataDirect Networks, and Tintri, where he guided companies through rapid growth, M&A, and market expansion. Known for his collaborative, business-minded approach, Guy enables innovation while safeguarding business and ethical standards.

Kumar Abhimanyu (Abhi) is the senior vice president and global head of strategic partnerships for SymphonyAI, leading the growth of the worldwide partner ecosystem across all SymphonyAI vertical businesses to position the company for continued growth. Abhi has more than two decades of sales and global P&L experience in the technology industry.

Abhi joined SymphonyAI from Cerence (NASDAQ: CRNC), where he was senior vice president of global client-facing functions, including field sales, channel partnerships, sales engineering, and commercial sales operations. Before that, he was the vice president of Samsung/HARMAN, focused on SaaS solutions for the automotive, hi-tech, media, and communications industries. Abhi previously held senior positions with frog design, Capgemini/Aricent, and General Motors/Hughes Software, supporting clients worldwide in engineering, product management, business unit management, and sales leadership roles. He holds a patent for a portable in-vehicle entertainment hub and is a TechCrunch contributor.

Abhi holds a master’s degree in computer science from the Birla Institute of Technology and completed executive leadership programs at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and IESE Business School in Barcelona.

Manish Choudhary is the president of SymphonyAI’s retail CPG division. He has more than two decades of experience leading global teams and managing P&L for publicly traded software and technology transformation-focused companies. He has deep growth experience both organically and through M&A, and he has particular passion and expertise in AI-driven digital transformation, SaaS, analytics, and machine learning. He joined SymphonyAI’s retail CPG division from Diebold Nixdorf, where he served as EVP of Global Software, and Pitney Bowes Inc. in SVP roles in Sending Technology and Global Innovation & Products. He holds MBAs from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and National University of Singapore.

John is president of SymphonyAI’s financial services division. He is a seasoned technology executive with over two decades of experience leading global organizations and driving growth and innovation in enterprise software and AI businesses across different industries. He brings deep expertise in digital transformation, product strategy, and scaling high-performance product and commercial organizations. 

Prior to joining SymphonyAI, John served as Chief Strategy & Product Officer at Honeywell, where he shaped the strategic direction of Honeywell Connected Enterprise, spearheading the creation and commercialization of innovative software solutions and driving software operational excellence across the company. Before Honeywell, he was President of ESKO, a Danaher operating company, where he led the company’s return to growth and its successful transition to a SaaS and subscription model. 

Earlier in his career, John held senior leadership roles at Oracle, including Group Vice President and General Manager of the Financial Services Global Business Unit, where he helped reposition Oracle as a fintech innovator and spearheaded the adoption of cloud and AI technologies in risk and compliance. He also held senior management roles at Hewlett-Packard and Vignette (now OpenText). 

John began his career as a mechanical engineer. He holds a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from Kerala University (College of Engineering Trivandrum) and a Master’s degree in Information Systems Management from Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business. 

Prateek is president of SymphonyAI’s industrial division and executive chairman of SymphonyAI’s enterprise IT division.

With over 20 years of technology leadership and extensive experience in the enterprise, telecom, and automotive industries, Prateek brings a unique background in machine learning and AI, product strategy, operations, product technology, engineering, and sales to SymphonyAI.

Prateek has extensive experience with highly engineered systems and expertise in B2B and consumer technology, deep learning, cloud virtualization, enterprise software, mobile applications, and information life cycle management.

Before joining SymphonyAI, Prateek served as EVP and CTO at Cerence, where he was responsible for Cerence’s technology vision, R&D, and professional services, and rolling out Cerence technology and solutions to more than 65 automotive customers across the world and more than 450 million cars on the road. Before Cerence, Prateek served as general manager of AI and IoT products at View, responsible for leading product strategy, defining and driving product roadmap, and supporting M&A activity to accelerate growth. Before View, he served as VP of product and solution management at Polycom, chief strategy officer at HighQ, and VP of product strategy at Accusoft, which acquired Adeptol, a company Prateek founded. Prateek previously worked for several companies, including EMC, Sapient, Cognizant, and NEC.

Prateek holds an MBA and a Bachelor’s of engineering degree in instrumentation and process control.

Charles is the president of SymphonyAI’s Enterprise IT division, with more than two decades of experience focused on IT leadership, digital transformation, and the future of work. He has held roles spanning IT operations, executing large-scale transformation programs, and technology analysis, advising organizations from startups to Fortune 500 companies on driving growth and innovation.

Before joining SymphonyAI, Charles was publisher and principal analyst of The DX Report and founder of The DX Institute. He previously served as strategic advisor at Waterloo Data, principal analyst at Intellyx, and vice president of consulting services at The Access Group. He is a former president and board member of itSMF USA. He is a frequent contributor to and is widely cited in technology publications, is a sought-after keynote speaker, and the author of three books on IT leadership.

Mark is president of SymphonyAI’s media division. Mark is a growth and transformational-oriented executive with extensive knowledge of general technology and the media space. He has more than 20 years of experience in the media industry centering around technology, revenue management, and optimization. Prior to SymphonyAI’s media division, Mark spent 10 years at WideOrbit Inc, the preeminent ad decisioning and ERP provider for TV/radio/cable industries, where he served as chief operating officer. In this capacity, Mark oversaw business operations for WideOrbit’s various product verticals, all externally facing initiatives, special projects, and strategies.

Before WideOrbit, Mark spent seven years at Google. Serving as technical operations manager, he managed operations for Google’s Broadcast division, specializing in the real-time insertion of advertising on live Radio Broadcast streams. Before pivoting to a technology specialization, Mark spent several years in the media industry proper holding positions of operations manager, director of programming, and on-air talent to radio and television organizations throughout the Midwest.

SymphonyAI’s founder and chairman Dr. Romesh Wadhwani is a proven, successful entrepreneur and CEO. He built Symphony Technology Group from startup to $2.5B revenue, $10B EV. Dr. Wadhwani has committed $1B of his own capital to build SymphonyAI.

With more than 30 years of technology leadership and extensive experience in the automotive industry, Sanjay brings a deep understanding of AI and machine learning applications to SymphonyAI. He has a particular focus on developing solutions at the intersection of devices, sensors, cloud solutions, and data integration.

Before joining SymphonyAI, Sanjay served as president and CEO at Cerence, leading its 2019 spin-out from Nuance. Sanjay was responsible for day-to-day operations and financial performance at Cerence, which has more than 60 automotive customers that use its technology in more than 350 million vehicles globally.

Before Cerence, Sanjay served as president of the Connected Services Division and chief technology officer of Harman Industries International until 2019. Between 2010 and 2019, he served as president and chief executive officer of Symphony Teleca Corporation. Harman acquired Symphony Teleca in January 2015. Sanjay Dhawan was responsible for the day-to-day operations of Symphony Teleca and its overall financial performance. Dhawan joined Symphony Teleca from Aricent, where he served as president and chief operating officer. Aricent is a KKR-owned privately held company with global operations in over 25 countries and more than 10,000 employees. At Aricent, he was responsible for the company’s strategy, sales, marketing, and the management and oversight of several high-growth business units and various functional units.

Before Aricent, Dhawan was the chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Inkra Networks, a company credited with defining the virtual networking market segment. Dhawan also held chief strategy, development, sales, and management roles at Netopia, StarNet, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Dhawan has authored several networking-related publications and books and chaired the IEEE 802 and ANSI X3T9 standards sub-groups. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Brunel University, England, and a bachelor of science degree in electronics and communications from REC Kurukshetra, India.

Blythe Masters is a Founding Partner at the fintech specialist private equity firm, Motive Partners, where she serves on the Investment Committee, chairs Motive Ventures, and is responsible for Motive’s strategic partnership with Apollo Global Management.

Masters is a Board Member of GCM Grosvenor, Forge Global and CAIS. She chairs Wilshire’s Digital Asset Advisory Group, and is an advisor to SandboxAQ, the enterprise quantum services business, the US Chamber of Digital Commerce, Figure Technologies (the blockchain fintech), and Maxex (the residential mortgage exchange).

From 2015-18, Masters was CEO of Digital Asset, the blockchain company responsible for the leading enterprise smart contract language DAML. Previously, she was a senior executive at J.P. Morgan, which she left in 2014 after a career spanning 27 years, following the successful sale of the physical commodities business she built for the bank. She was a member of the Corporate & Investment Bank Operating Committee and the firmwide Executive Committee. Earlier positions at J.P. Morgan included head of Corporate & Investment Bank Regulatory Affairs, CFO of the Global Investment Bank, head of Global Credit Portfolio and Credit Policy and Strategy, head of North American Structured Credit Products, co-head of Asset Backed Securitization and head of Global Structured Credit.

Masters is a former board member of Credit Suisse Group, A.P. Møller Maersk, and Santander Group’s International Advisory Board. She is a past Chair of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA), the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and the Governing Board of the Linux Foundation’s open source Hyperledger Project. She has also served on the Third Way’s Capital Markets Initiative Advisory Group, the Economic Studies Council and the Taskforce on Financial Stability of the Brookings Institution, the IMF’s High Level Advisory Group on FinTech and as a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association.

Daniela Rus is the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. Prof. Rus’s research interests are in robotics and artificial intelligence. The key focus of her research is to develop the science and engineering of autonomy. Her work addresses the foundations of (1) computational design of novel machines bodies from user specifications, (2) algorithms for machine reasoning, and (3) algorithms for machine-machine coordination and more natural human-machine interaction.

Prof. Rus served as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and on the Defense Innovation Board. She is a senior visiting fellow at MITRE Corporation. She currently serves as a USA expert for Global Partnerships in AI, on the board of trustees of MBZUAI, on the board of directors of Symbotic, on the British Telecom Technology Advisory Board, and on the board of directors of Mass Robotics. She also served as Deputy Dean of Research in the Schwarzman College of Computing at MIT between 2019-2022.

Prof. Rus is a MacArthur Fellow, a fellow of ACM, IEEE, AAAI and AAAS, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the recipient of the Engelberger Award for robotics, the IEEE RAS Pioneer award, IEEE Robotics and Automation Technical Award, Mass TLC Innovation Catalyst Award, and the IJCAI John McCarthy Award. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University.

Todd Harbaugh is a renowned retail expert with broad-based expertise in store operations, merchandising strategies, supply chain operations, and e-commerce. He is a founding partner of retail consultancy Ollin Global Consulting.

Harbaugh’s 30-year career at Walmart Inc. included extensive and varied experience, culminating in his role as executive vice president of Walmart Supercenters, overseeing 4,000 stores, a million employees, and $250 billion in annual sales.

Previously in Harbaugh’s Walmart career, he was EVP of Walmart Neighborhood Markets, leading the grocery division at more than 700 stores across the US. Prior, he led all Walmart operations in Mexico as chief operating officer for Walmart Mexico, overseeing 2,400 stores and 200,000 employees, along with leading logistics and distribution, innovation productivity, marketing, and strategic planning. Prior, Harbaugh held leadership positions at Sam’s Club, including president of Sam’s Club Mexico and leader of wholesale initiatives for Latin America, EVP of operations and chief integration officer in the US, and other senior roles in inventory management, supply chain, and business member services.

Harbaugh began his career at Walmart in 1990 after six years of US Navy service. He has executive leadership experience from The Wharton School, Harvard Business School, The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and the University of Cambridge.