Saumya Das
President | Chief AI Strategist | Chief Growth Officer
Visionary AI and Cloud Strategist with 25+ years of experience driving enterprise-scale transformation and generating $2B+ in AI and cloud revenue. Recognized for pioneering AI-first strategies – especially in GenAI and Agentic AI – and translating complex technologies into compelling business narratives that inspire executive decision-making.
Serves as a trusted advisor to CxOs, bridging deep technical acumen with storytelling, strategic foresight, and cross-industry innovation. A recognized AI evangelist and growth leader known for influencing Fortune 100 adoption of AI, scaling SaaS businesses to $1.6B ARR, and forging $500M+ partnerships with Microsoft, Amazon, Google, IBM, and Salesforce.
Passionate about harnessing AI to drive transformation, operational excellence, bold innovative solutions and sustainable hypergrowth.
p: 412-498-5640​
Experience
Jan 2021 - Present
President & CEO, Chief AI Evangelist
Lead Awah’s AI-First Venture Studio (AAVS), accelerating the global AI startup ecosystem by partnering with visionary founders to scale bold, Agentic AI and GenAI-native ventures from idea to market impact. Combine strategic foresight, storytelling, and commercialization expertise to help early-stage companies transform breakthrough innovation into sustainable enterprise value.
Oct 2017 - Dec 2020
Chief Growth Officer, Chief AI & Cloud Officer
Appointed to lead the AI-first cloud transformation agenda across the Americas, driving large-scale enterprise adoption of cognitive, agentic, and intelligent automation technologies. Served as a trusted advisor and evangelist to C-level executives, helping Fortune 100 clients translate emerging AI innovations into measurable business outcomes. Oversaw GTM strategy, market expansion, and the convergence of AI, data analytics, and cloud services across financial, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and public sectors.
Sep 2015 - Oct 2017
Chief Cloud Officer
Global Cloud Services Head – Government
Led IBM’s federal and healthcare cloud transformation initiatives, driving $600M+ in AI and cloud enabled revenue. Served as trusted advisor to CxOs across federal agencies, guiding vision and strategy for AI-driven digital modernization.
Aug 2011 - Aug 2015
Head of IBM Cloud Solutions, Go-to-Market and Sales – Public Sector
Promoted for strong precedent in establishing, driving, and delivering new revenue for IBM. As Go-To-Market leader, identified large, untapped markets for shared services and slowly maturing markets for hybrid cloud consulting. Recognized as a Cloud Pioneer. Established a new $250M practice for Managed Services for Government.
Oct 2009 - Jul 2011
Chief Customer Experience Officer
Global Head of Partner Alliances – Government & Healthcare
Designated as a thought leader for Smarter Contact Center based on predictive analytics. Advocated improving customer experiences through Voice of the Customer while establishing new business relationships with industry-leading firms, directing synergistic alliance strategy, growing partner ecosystem, creating best-of-breed insights-driven innovative contact center solutions, and increased revenue by $170M.
Jun 2008 - Jun 2011
Business Sales and Delivery Executive - Digital Transformation
Moved to the Public Sector as a digital transformation, contact center, and case management expert to drive IBM programs with full P&L responsibility of over $150M, delivery excellence, and provide execution oversight to multiple large programs.
Aug 2003 - Jun 2008
Program Manager, Solution Architect, Capture Manager
Chosen for expertise in managing complex Customer Experience (CX) and Business Intelligence initiatives. Led bids, global program delivery and grew IBM business strategy with existing and new client captures valued over $100M.
Jan 1999 - Jul 2003
Project Manager, Solution Architect, Proposal Manager
Recruited to spearhead CX business, and lead data analytics for digital transformations and enriched customer experience.
Jul 1996 - Dec 1998
Product Lead
Client Relationship & Implementation Head
Built and launched India's first integrated Digital Insurance platform. Captured 70% of total Indian general insurance business.
Results
Delivered insights-driven digital solutions for improved customer experience (CX), including $100M annual savings, a 46% increase in customer engagement and a 36% increase in customer satisfaction
Built innovative digital solutions as cloud pioneer with the experience of creating IBM’s Gov Cloud generating over $1.7B revenue.
Executed a $70M transformational digitization of Disability Claims Processing at US SSA using predictive analytics and AI to reduce average claims adjudication time by 13%.
Expertise
AI | Cloud | Digital Pioneer
Customer Experience (CX)
GTM | Business Development
Strategic Alliances
Program Management
EBITDA
Business Strategy
Product & Solution Development
Sales | Pipeline Management
Global Business Operations
Financial Planning
Serial Entrepreneur
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Meet Saumya
Q & A
Q: Why did you choose your profession?
A: Zeal to transform the lives of people around me that I can reflect on and feel proud of every day when I stand in front of mirror.
Q: What tools do you use?
A: My leadership is based on the principles of FLASH:
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Foresight (ability to create and communicate vision)
Lead by example
Accessibility with humbleness and empathy
Shared ownership for success
Honesty
Q: Do you live by any piece of advice or motto?
A: If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: Fostering ideas that can change lives around the world.
Q: What behavior or personality trait do you most attribute to your success, and why?
A: Patience is the biggest virtue I have mastered after working in an evolving and challenging services industry throughout my career. I employ patience, as we look for and await results from my organization’s long-term strategic planning. More importantly, patience comes extremely handy in fostering a sustainable employee culture that drives innovation and willingness to break the glass ceiling.
Q: What is the one thing you need to know about your co-workers?
A: I would love to know if my co-worker can hit the bull’s eye with a DART – Dependable, Accountable, Responsible and Trustworthy.
Q: Who inspires you and why?
A: Ben Franklin was an extraordinary polymath who has inspired me to grow my interests into public service, arts, philosophy and sports beyond the boundaries of science and technology. My zest for forethought and planning in everything I do comes from his advice – “Life is a kind of Chess, with struggle, competition, good and ill events.”
Q: What life circumstance has most shaped your world view?
A: Premature birth of my son helped me realize that there are a plethora of problems around the world that are overlooked. God has given us this life to make it more meaningful and impactful.
Q: If you were an action figure, what accessories would you be sold with?
A: Cape – Symbol of hope people can rely on.
Q: If you could be any kitchen appliance, what could you be?
A: Refrigerator – Reliable, trustworthy, patient, and strong.
Testimonials
Alan Heintzelman, Business & IT Executive
Saumya’s strong management skills coupled with his business acumen and “team building” approaches are key to the results achieved. His experience is evident in how he guides the team through the challenges encountered and how he remains calm in the face of chaos. Saumya’s communications skills are also important in keeping everyone focused on the same objectives, in the same manner and sharing in a sense of accomplishment. He demands high quality results from his team and is able to achieve them in a collaborative way while also maintaining high morale. I recognize Saumya as a highly motivated, dedicated, passionate and focused leader. He has the ability to lead diverse and distributed teams through complex business issues and consistently deliver results on schedule. I have seen him as an effective communicator during interaction with clients, with project teams and during sales proposals.
Chris Robinson, Director of NA Strategic Partnerships
Saumya has all of the positive attributes that a customer would want in a Service Industry Executive at IBM Global Services. Saumya is knowledgeable, detail oriented and a pleasure to work with. He is customer focused and delivers what he commits to.
Michael Wang, Director of Solutions Architecture
Saumya is a thought leader for both the Public Sector and CRM. His efforts allowed our practice area within IBM to dramatically grow its business by fostering longlasting relationships with our clients.
Interests & Hobbies
Phone
Website
Location