Ramesh Srinivasan
Head of Cybersecurity
Americold
Ramesh Srinivasan is the Head of Global Cyber Security at Americold Realty Trust, Inc., providing singular accountability to all information security controls in the company. With CISSP and CRISC certifications, he has been a leader in information security for multiple global organizations.
Ramesh has more than 37 years of experience in information technology spanning across software development and resilient infrastructure, and for the past 27 years he has focused on information security, governance and risk management. He combines strong organizational management and leadership skills with a high degree of technical expertise to enable information assurance.
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Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
Starting my career as a software developer, I had the business acumen to design and deliver technology solutions to meet business needs. This provided me with opportunities to lead teams in Singapore, Australia, and the United States and work at multinational organizations - Unilever, Unocal, Union Carbide and more - where I mentored and managed teams of developers, project managers and technical sales people.
My consistent career progression paved the way to an entrepreneurial opportunity to lead a cyber security consulting practice for several years, which further enhanced my experience in M&A security assessment and integration. This directly led to my current role as the Head of Global Cyber Security functions at Americold Reality Trust, Inc.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
Drive results through transparency, mentoring, leading by example, being passionate and embracing diversity and inclusion.
With disruption being a key theme of the past year, where do you see your role as a CISO going in the next 1-2 years?
As the technology landscape is ever changing and digitalization is increasing the criticality of cyber security measures across the organization, the CISOs role is continuing to evolve to be more of an orchestrator. We must strategically ensure distributed responsibilities for the security controls while retaining accountability, monitoring and governance.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the role as a CISO?
The CISOs job may seem hyper-focused on technical and administrative capabilities, but success is determined by relationships and articulation of how cyber security is driving business success. The ability to incorporate your efforts in both strategic and tactical business operations is critical to the success of the role and the overall program, including driving both the bottom line and top line and risk reduction.
Tell us 3 fun facts about yourself.
- I enjoy water-sports.
- I like cross country road trips and adventure trips.
- I am a foodie.
What is the value of joining an Evanta community?
Evanta is a professional community which enables great opportunities for connecting with like-minded and functional professionals. I am an avid learner and trainer, and this will provide yet another opportunity to share my experience and thoughts around the common industry challenges and learn from others simultaneously.
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