Gender equity is not the only challenge women CIOs face: an interview with Anu Varma, CIO for the communication solution segment at TE connectivity

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This interview offers rare insight covering the recent triangulation of events - technology churning and crunching more bytes, COVID presenting more supply chain and analytical challenges, and more female CIOs entering the C-suites. Anu Varma, Vice President and CIO of the Communication Solution Segment at TE Connectivity, sat down with JITCAR to offer a rare insight into the evolving CEO-CIO dynamics, particularly from the women CIO perspective in these challenging and also promising times. In the interview, Anu shares how the CEO-CIO dynamics have changed significantly in the past ten to fifteen years. She also highlights how IT is now driving the business strategy, and the CIO is trusted with business roles rather than a back-office role. As a female CIO, Anu offers unique perspectives on the challenges faced by women in the IT world, particularly at the CIO level. During Covid, she and her team embraced the supply chain challenges and turned those into an opportunity to transform IT operations at TE Connectivity. Their efforts have also driven the analytics and insight-driven culture and created more demand for analytical-driven solutions within the business. The interview also discusses several other pressing issues facing CIOs in the manufacturing industry: IT talent acquisition/retention and costs of IT and cybersecurity. The interview also discusses how business leaders can support women in balancing their work responsibilities and family obligations in IT and elsewhere. The interview was conducted by Dr. Gaurav Bansal and transcribed by Dr. Zhuoli Axelton, both from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.