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Journey in Innovation & Leadership with Ponni Krishnamoorthy
Published 1 year ago
Description
Today, as part of the women’s special series in March, 2025, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Ponni Krishnamoorthy, Director and Global head of Telco cloud in Nokia talks about breaking societal expectations to achieving career goals
- Ponni shares about her humble background and Her roots in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, and how her upbringing shaped her career choices and Ponni’s career journey from NIT Trichy to becoming Director at Nokia.
- Ponni shares her Being the first woman engineer in her extended family.
- Initial societal expectations (suggestions to become a teacher or doctor).
- Love for math, problem-solving, and coding led her to engineering.
- Ponni shares her Career Growth & Transition from software engineer and her inspiration to be a coding guru
- She started her career with Siemens Communication Software as a developer and slowly shifted into techno-management after earning an MBA from IIM Bangalore while working full-time.
- Ponni shares stories of her transition from developer to global technology leadership.
- Ponni talks about taking different roles in the same firm such as global product development and end-to-end project ownership
- Pooni shares her Experience with mergers & acquisitions (M&A) and predicting industry trends.
- She talks about operational challenges and Leading teams across multiple countries (Finland, India, China, US) and working through sanctions during the Iraq-Iran war.
- Ponni talks about Early involvement in digital twin technology (before it became mainstream).
-Importance of creating a culture of problem-solving & dreaming big.
- Ponni talks about her role in University Engagement & Mentorship while encouraging students and young professionals to take risks.
- Pooni shares her career advice and Leadership Lessons on the importance of patience and long-term growth, avoiding the trap of jumping jobs for short-term gains.
- She also shares her learning from each role before moving up the ladder and defining personal success metrics rather than following trends.
Ponni is Director of Telco Cloud Data center a