The CXO Futurist: How to develop C-suite readiness

C-suite is a term used to denote a group of officials who are a company’s most important executives. C-Suite executives are the driving force behind organizations. They are the strategic thinkers, change-makers and innovators who spearhead organizational growth. For many, becoming a C-suite leader is the pinnacle point in their career, reaching it after decades worth of industry experience. 

All these high officials reach their positions after serving at various management levels. These persons of high caliber can come from any background as long as they have cultivated skills demanded by their jobs. It is evident that there are much fewer C-suite positions than middle management posts. 

So what does it actually mean to develop your C-suite readiness? What are the key characteristics that executive leaders share? What will C-suite look like in the future?

Watch this virtual discussion, led by our two experts,Vishal Gupta, Senior Vice President & Chief Information and Technology Officer​ (CITO) at Lexmark and Meg Columbia-Walsh, Director of World Wide Revenue Operations at Amazon Web Services, as they discuss based on their own experience as C-level leaders, what the future holds for the C-suite management and what will be the traits of the “new breed of top executive.”

Vishal Gupta

Senior Vice President & Chief Information and Technology Officer​ (CITO) at Lexmark

Vishal Gupta is senior vice president and CIO and CTO for Lexmark International. He leads global information technology, software development, data science, Lexmark Ventures, and corporate strategy in a unified Connected Technology and Ventures team responsible for making connections - between customers, employees, products and strategy. His organization ensures alignment from strategic direction through software offer delivery, focusing on leveraging emerging technologies such as cloud, IoT, AI and data analytics to deliver outstanding customer outcomes. He holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he was recognized as a Palmer Scholar. Gupta is a member of the Forbes Technology council, Wall Street Journal CIO council, and founding board member of WashingtonExec CTO council.

Meg Columbia-Walsh

Director of World Wide Revenue Operations at Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Meg Columbia-Walsh is recognized as one of the most successful women tech entrepreneurs and CEOs. Meg is currently the Director of World Wide Revenue Operations at Amazon Web Services. She’s an expert in AI/ML Marketing Technology, personalization at scale, Digital Transformation and Healthcare and Life Sciences. Additionally, Meg is responsible for helping to build and run an invitation-only program designed for senior sales leaders. This new program is designed to enable the field to build effective CEO and Board relationships. Responsibilities include team leadership, innovation, design, training and coaching field sales leaders in sales enablement.

Meg was a former CEO of Wylei, an Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning company where the cloud based machine uses advanced predictive algorithms to take the guesswork out of digital web, email, mobile, and video campaigns. This was Walsh's 5th start up and the previous all were sold to the Fortune 100 and one in an IPO. During her twenty plus year career in healthcare, CPG and Technology, Meg has successfully founded, run and exited companies including Inverse Mobile sold to EY, Oncology.com sold to Pharmacia and Upjohn, CBS Healthwatch in IPO and then sold to WebMD, and HealthTech Digital Communications sold to Interpublic Group.