Prathima B Hegde

About Prathima B Hegde

I am a Transformational CIO with over 25 years of experience driving enterprise-scale digital, AI, and data strategies across global CPG, Healthcare, and Manufacturing organizations.I specialize in steering complex turnarounds, financial restructurings, and large-scale M&A integrations. My focus is on modernizing fragmented IT environments into agile, secure operations that drive direct P&L impact. Recently, I have focused on operationalizing Artificial Intelligence (GenAI, ML, RPA) to capture immediate ROI, optimize supply chain efficiency, and safeguard enterprise revenue. Alongside digital innovation, I prioritize fortifying enterprise resilience through Zero Trust cybersecurity frameworks and strategic cloud consolidation.At my core, I balance deep technical grit with cultural transformation. My leadership philosophy is built on instilling a profound sense of ownership and excitement within IT organizations—transforming traditional departments into high-performing, globally distributed engines that consistently deliver rapid innovation and rigorous execution.Fortune 500, Finance, Purchasing, HR, Legal, CRM domains. Jagger, SAP, Workday, ERP, Analytics, People Analytics Sales force, MS Dynamics, SAAS, Cloud, AR, VR, AI, RPA, IoT, AWS, Azure, Power BI Process optimization, Acquisitions and Divestitures, Employee Experience, Vendor evaluations, Transformations, Budget management, Agile methodologies, QlikView, Tableau, OrgVue, People Analytics HRIS, CIO, CTO, AI, Product Management

Experience

1. Chief Information Officer

   Del Monte Foods

   Dec 2024 — Present

   Reporting to the CFO, led enterprise IT strategy and a $105M+ portfolio through a critical financial restructuring (bankruptcy). Partnered with the board and business leaders to drive aggressive cost reduction and digital transformation.• Enterprise AI: Engineered an AI automated dispute engine, achieving an 85% win rate (Amazon/Walmart). Deployed 24/7 AI Consumer Engagement across 7 brands with a 54.7% resolution rate in 35 days.• ML & Predictive Analytics: Spearheaded an ML Warehouse Labor Intelligence model targeting a 30-40% reduction in man-hours. Architected predictive maintenance analytics to capture +22 production days/line annually.• Data Strategy & Self-Service BI: Consolidated disparate data lakes into a unified SAP BDC environment. Democratized data by empowering business units to independently build BI reports while IT focused on robust data modeling.• Cost Optimization: Championed high-speed,$0 licensing process improvements to conserve capital; connected Traksys and Blue Yonder APIs in 2 weeks, reducing administrative time by 75%.• High-Performance Culture & Extreme Ownership: Transformed a 150+ member IT department into an execution-focused engine during bankruptcy. Led with passion to spark a culture of extreme ownership, empowering the team to deliver peak performance under severe stress.• Cloud Consolidation & FinOps: Consolidated complex multi-cloud (AWS/Azure) infrastructure into a unified Azure landscape, institutionalizing rigorous enterprise FinOps practices.• AI Enablement: Launched enterprise Copilot Chat training, empowering users to build custom AI agents to accelerate workforce productivity.

Education

• The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

  Master of Business Administration - MBA