My story
Interesting. Fun. Passionate. Authentic. Get-stuff-done. I run technology transformations and say the quiet part out loud while doing it.
I grew up in India in a highly educated family of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins with numerous post-doctorate degrees. I have a master's in computer science and am the least educated person in my generation.
When I was in high school, I wanted to be a professor. After my undergraduate studies in physics, I did my master's in computer science. Instead of becoming a professor, I joined a consulting company as a software programmer.
That took me to Japan. I worked at Citibank in Japan, learning the financial services business by reading programs, and fell in love with derivatives trading. I took a new role as a technology coordinator for derivatives operations, then moved to Citibank New York for the same role for global derivatives. Someone suggested my work was more suited to a management consulting company. I always thought management consulting was for MBAs and not for engineers!
I went and had a chat at Ernst & Young, and fell in love with consulting. My consulting career brought me from New York to San Francisco. But after my son was born, I realized constant travel was not what I wanted to do.
I joined a software company called Intuit. I loved my work and learned true product management and customer obsession. I then joined an awesome company, First Republic Bank, as a divisional CIO. I left to join AssetMark, a wealth management platform, as Chief Application Officer. Currently I am loving my life designing a game-changing wealth platform at Amplify.
“If I catch you coding again, I will fire you. Your job is to teach your team to get to the level you want them to be.”
My first manager, Tokyo, after finding me at midnight doing my team's work. Still the most useful sentence anyone has said to me. Leadership is not about being the superstar. It is about building a super team.
Product strategy for an AI-native advisor platform. Built the product operating model from nothing: process, roadmap, delivery cadence.
Writing, speaking and advising on transformation and leadership.
The whole application portfolio and a $40M+ annual project budget. Led the portfolio accounting migration — the largest program in the firm's history — plus billing, tax and cash administration.
Deposits technology end to end. Grew the team from three people to a division. Learned what customer obsession looks like when nobody is watching.
Four hundred-plus agent tools collapsed into a single view of the customer for roughly 4,000 agents.
Derivatives operations and technology in Tokyo and New York. Then consulting: hedge fund launches, first-ever data governance standards, enterprise data strategy.
Brave Women at Work: Lessons in Authenticity — my chapter is called “Blow Up the Playbook,” and the argument is simple: confidence does not make you authentic. Courage does. It's the second book in the series I've contributed to, alongside Jennifer Pestikas, Hope Mueller and seven other women.
Also a contributing author to Brave Women at Work: Lessons in Leadership. My chapter: “Life Is Not a Straight Line.”
Studied · MSc Computer Science, University of Pune. BSc Physics, Jadavpur University, Calcutta.
Passion, not ambition — that's the whole operating principle. I trained in Indian classical music for years and still disappear into it. I cook, though following a recipe is beyond me. My son is at college, so the household is my husband, three cats, a dog and whatever AI app I'm building that week. And I'd rather watch matches — tennis, soccer, cricket — than games.
hello@churnispeaks.com