A must-watch for CIOs, senior IT leaders, and enterprise technology decision-makers navigating the intersection of mission-critical operations, AI adoption, and data-first transformation.
In this episode, Ram Tyagi, CIO of the City of Aurora, the second largest city in Illinois, shares what it means to lead technology when a wrong decision can take down 911, water systems, or police operations for 280,000 residents. With 15 years at Publicis Sapient and a tenure managing data infrastructure for a $95 billion asset manager at Harris Associates, Ram brings a rare lens to modern CIO leadership: people first, data before AI, and mindset over budget.
Why you should watch: If you lead technology in government, enterprise, or the mid-market, Ram's perspective on what actually drives transformation versus what slows it down will change how you plan your next six months.
Ram explains:
- Why every AI strategy fails without a data centralization foundation built first
- How he saved $3.5 million from a constrained municipal budget without cutting a single service
- Why budget is rarely the real constraint in technology transformation and what actually is
- The six-month playbook he used to align a 43-person team, 50-plus vendor partners, and city leadership from day one
- What separates a vendor from a true technology partner in the eyes of a modern CIO
- Why cybersecurity at city scale is a collaboration problem first and a technology problem second
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Chirag Khanijau
