Women Leaders Break Barriers as IT Sector's New Rainmakers
Historically, the IT sector's biggest dealmakers have emerged from a predominantly male cohort. While women account for a significant share of the workforce across large IT services firms, far fewer have traditionally occupied roles that drive multi-million and billion-dollar deals. This underscores a long-standing gap between corporate representation and influence in the industry.
A Small but Growing Club of Women Rainmakers
Though still a small club, a handful of women leaders are beginning to reshape that narrative, emerging as key rainmakers behind some of the sector's largest deals. Arundhati Chakraborty, chief executive of Accenture Operations, took charge of a business generating about $10 billion in revenue two years ago. She leads a global workforce of more than 220,000 professionals and oversees large-scale transformation programmes for global enterprises.
Among Indian IT firms, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has seen a few homegrown women leaders rise through the ranks and influence strategic decisions. Uma Rijhwani, senior vice president and business unit head for banking, financial services, and insurance, oversees the unit's profit and loss, managing sales, client relationships, delivery, and operations across key accounts in the region.
Aarthi Subramanian, the company's chief operating officer, also played a key role in TCS's $700-million all-cash acquisition of Salesforce consulting firm Coastal Cloud. A decade earlier, Farzana Haque oversaw a book of business exceeding $1 billion as global head of strategic group accounts at TCS, though she is no longer with the firm.
The Gender Paradox in IT Leadership
According to Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, partner at Catalincs, the sector's gender paradox lies in the gap between representation and influence. "While the industry prides itself on having 35-40% women in the workforce and some of the most accomplished women leaders on its boards, it could have done a much better job of creating women rainmakers and dealmakers," he said.
Multinational Firms Place Women in Influential Roles
Some multinational firms have also begun placing more women in influential operational roles. At Capgemini, Karine Brunet became chief operations and delivery officer in January and joined the group's executive board. At Cognizant, Shveta Arora, global head of consulting, has been making key moves, including helping stitch together the Pearson deal last year.
Mariesa Coughanour, head of advisory and North American delivery and mindshare for Cognizant Automation and Agentic AI, was a key dealmaker in the company's partnership with Pacific Gas and Electric Company, sources told The Times of India. Meanwhile, Riju Vashisht, chief growth officer at Genpact, leads transformation services and enterprise sales.
This shift highlights a gradual but significant change in the IT sector, where women are increasingly taking on roles that drive major business deals and strategic decisions, challenging the traditional male-dominated landscape.
