Venkatasubramanian ("Subbu")

"Technology changes. Titles change. Industries change. Curiosity remains timeless."

The Beginning

My story begins in a small Tamil-medium school on the outskirts of Chennai. There were no computers around me. No internet. No startups. No technology parks. What I did have was curiosity, and in hindsight that proved to be enough.

I loved Mathematics because it explained the world. I loved Physics because it revealed the mechanics behind seemingly magical phenomena. I loved books, debates, essays, poetry, and sports because they taught me how to think, communicate, compete, and learn.

During my school years I was fortunate to excel in academics, athletics, cricket, yoga, public speaking, essay competitions, debates, and poetry. Looking back, those experiences built the foundations of everything that followed.

The Indian Air Force - My Real University

Like many young men of my generation, I dreamt of becoming a pilot. I successfully cleared the National Defence Academy examination, but a medical limitation prevented me from pursuing a flying career.

The foundations of excellence: Early days in the IAF.

What appeared to be disappointment at the time turned out to be one of the greatest gifts life ever gave me.

I joined the Indian Air Force as an Airman.

The Air Force became my university, my leadership academy, and my finishing school. During training I graduated with a rare double promotion while winning multiple distinctions. It was there that I learned discipline, accountability, leadership, resilience, and the importance of excellence.

Discovering Computing

Shortly after training, I was posted to the Air Headquarters Computer Centre. That posting changed my life forever.

Computers were rare in India during the early 1980s. Mainframes were exotic. Documentation arrived in volumes thick enough to intimidate most people. I found them fascinating.

I volunteered to open and close the office. I spent countless hours studying operating systems, utilities, languages, architecture, and systems software. Nobody asked me to do it. Curiosity did.

Over the years I worked with COBOL, FORTRAN, BASIC, Pascal, Assembly Language, C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, Shell scripting, and numerous other technologies. My second program in life happened to be system software.

That probably explains why infrastructure, architecture, automation, operating systems, and large-scale platforms have always fascinated me.

A Soldier and a Scholar

Throughout my military career and long after, I remained deeply committed to formal education—even when it took a highly scenic route.

My completed academic milestones include a Master's Degree in Public Administration, a Master of Computer Applications (MCA), and an unfinished MS in Computer Science.

Alongside these completed milestones sits an eclectic trail of pure, unapologetic curiosity: a broken B.Com (Hons) and four broken MBAs.

Leadership and scholarship: The Commissioned Officer years.

Together they shaped much of my leadership philosophy and enabled me to work effectively at the intersection of people, process, and technology.

The Second Career

Most people spend a lifetime building one career. I was fortunate enough to build two.

At an early age of thirty-eight, I voluntarily retired from the Air Force and entered the corporate world. What followed were opportunities to work with remarkable organizations including Fidelity Investments, GE, Juniper Networks, NTT, Infosys, TMF, TOLL, and others.

My work has spanned software engineering, enterprise architecture, cloud computing, infrastructure operations, networking, storage, databases, virtualization, automation, cybersecurity, and end-user computing.

Among many memorable projects, I particularly cherish helping shape modern data center capabilities during my time at Juniper Networks in Bangalore.

Leadership

I have never been particularly fond of the word "management."

Assets are managed. Machines are managed. People are led.

Throughout my career I have tried to create environments where talented individuals could flourish. Some of my proudest achievements are not systems, products, or projects. They are people who grew into architects, directors, executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders.

What I Believe

• Learning never stops.
• Curiosity compounds.
• Technology should serve people.
• People are led, not managed.
• Discipline beats talent when talent stops learning.
• The best leaders create more leaders.