Dr. Girish K. Varma is a Managing Partner, Information Technology Practice at RIDGE-LANE LP.
Dr. Varma has over 35 years of experience as a senior business and technology leader at fortune 150 companies (AT&T, IBM, CenturyLink, Qwest) starting at Bell Laboratories. During his career, he led several successful business transformations and turnarounds, built new businesses and scaled them both organically and through acquisitions.
Girish was President of Global IT/Managed Services and New Market Development at CenturyLink, the second largest enterprise telecom and internet provider in the world, where he created and led the business unit for new products in the areas of technology consulting and managed services, including digital transformation, IoT, public & private cloud, Advanced Security, AI, Big Data & predictive analytics.
Dr. Varma also served as Executive Vice President & Chief Information Officer at CenturyLink, responsible for driving the technology initiatives for business transformation, customer experience and digital acceleration. In this role, he also led the integration of several large acquisitions, including Qwest and Savvis.
Prior to the acquisition, Girish served as the CIO at Qwest and led the organization in enabling the major turnaround of Qwest business to share growth and profitability. Earlier at IBM, he served as the Vice President of Global Applications Services, and also built the Telecom Center, focused on creating new business & products for the telecom industry.
Prior to IBM, Girish was a Corporate Vice President at AT&T, with CIO responsibilities for business, network and local services. Earlier his technology career started at Bell Labs, where he held a number of technical & management positions with increasing levels of responsibility.
Dr. Varma holds a Masters Degree from Banaras Hindu University in India and a PhD from the City University of New York. He is also a founding LP investor, advisor and member of the Investment Committee at The CXO Fund, which invests in early stage companies, focused on artificial intelligence/machine learning, security, and internet of things.
