Guru Vasudeva is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Application & Data Services at Nationwide, a financial services and insurance company with more than $25 billion in revenue for 2014.In this role, Guru manages a shared services organization that provides project management, application development, data & analytics, and IT help desk services for the enterprise. He is also responsible for the Lean and Agile transformation of application development and maintenance functions across Nationwide.
Prior to this role, Guru held several senior leadership positions at Nationwide including Enterprise Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Business Unit CIO, and Chief Architect. In these roles, Guru led several functions including IT strategy, enterprise architecture, cyber security, disaster recovery, large program management, and application development and maintenance.
Guru represents Nationwide in regional economic development activities in the Greater Columbus area such as the Columbus 2020 initiative. He is one of the architects of the Columbus Collaboratory, an entity formed by seven Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Columbus to focus on big data, cyber security, and talent development and attraction.
Guru has over 22 years of experience in operations and information technology. Before joining Nationwide, he spent six years at IBM as an executive architect focused on conceptualizing, selling, and delivering large Internet-based business solutions for insurance, retail, and government organizations. He has also worked for AT&T and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
A results oriented leader, Guru has demonstrated success in strategic planning and leading transformational initiatives, as well as running and continuously improving large-scale operations. He excels in applying process discipline and technology to deliver measurable business outcomes and realize competitive advantages.
He is co-author of the book, Patterns for e-Business – A Strategy for Reuse, which has proven effective in bridging the business and IT gap by quickly reaching IT solutions that satisfy business intent.
Guru holds a variety of awards, including the IBM Outstanding Innovation Award and the IBM Corporate Award. He earned an MBA in International Finance from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from the University of Mysore in India. Guru resides in Columbus, Ohio and is married with two children.
About Nationwide
Nationwide, a Fortune 100 company based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the U.S. and is rated A+ by both A.M. Best and Standard & Poor’s. The company provides a full range of insurance and financial services, including auto, commercial, homeowners and life insurance; public and private sector retirement plans, annuities and mutual funds; banking and mortgages; specialty health; pet, motorcycle, boat and farm insurance. For more information, visit www.nationwide.com.