Suja Chandrasekaran is a digital and technology leader. She has risen through the ranks in the corporate world.
Currently, she is senior executive vice president, chief information, and digital officer for Common Spirit, which was created by the alignment of Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health as a single ministry in early 2019.
Previously, she served in chief of information and digital technology roles at the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Walmart Inc, and Nestle S.A.
Suja has a master’s in business systems from Monash University, Australia, and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Madras, India.
“Mine is a career of preparing myself, building subject matter expertise, taking chances, influencing people, tenacity/work ethics, mentors guiding me, making mistakes, falling down and pulling myself up,” she told Women of Color magazine.
Suja described herself as having a “somewhat linear career path with individual contributor role leading up to managerial roles leading to director/vice president and C level [chief information officer, chief technology officer, chief data officer] roles.”
But she doesn’t sugarcoat the challenges she has faced in climbing the corporate ladder.
“Smooth sailing is in fairy tales,” she said. “In reality, everybody goes through bumps. I have made faux-pas around various adjustments. I have struggled. But for those moments of discomfort, disappointments, I wouldn’t have developed.”
However, she also explained, that in retrospect, her own paradigms have gotten in her way.
“My own paradigms were my limiting factor – not really the lack of opportunities,” she said. “When I was an individual contributor, all I thought of was my code, the servers I built, the databases I enabled, my internal customers, peers, and my sphere of influence. Thinking broader and thinking of broader strategies, enterprise impact, people development, cross-functional engagement, horizontal influence, took me to middle-management.
She also said it’s important to have a non-linear career path and that individuals are never too young to play the biggest roles.
“And no matter what role you play, you are the CEO of that job,” advises Suja.
On the subject of a “glass ceiling” that prevents some women from reaching their full potential, Suja said what’s important is what we do about it. "How we react to it is our choice. We could sit in a corner and mope or we could take action. And whenever there is such a choice, take action. Surround yourself with mentors, she said.”
She also notes the technology field is a “desert for women” and that on occasions, aside from the woman serving a group coffee or tea, she is the only other woman in the room. “This is one of the reasons I have doubled down on my investment and commitment to women in technology initiatives. I willingly share, coach, guide, mentor, sponsor other women.”
However, she cautions against creating limits because of glass ceilings.
Suja offers the following advice to young women just beginning their careers:
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