Elevating the women leading strategy in TMT to empower digital transformation and growth

Speaker Profile

As Chief Strategy Officer, Laxmi Akkaraju is responsible for working with the GSMA’s membership in defining global strategies and initiatives that will offer collective benefit for mobile operators and the wider mobile industry. Laxmi brings more than 20 years of experience in the IT industry across India, Norway and the United States. She joined the GSMA in 2017 from EVRY, a leading IT company providing business-critical solutions to a wide range of enterprises and public sector organisations. As Senior Vice President, Global Delivery, Laxmi oversaw the offshoring services for EVRY and EVRY clients. She also spent two years as Country Manager for EVRY’s operation in Bangalore, India. Prior to EVRY, Laxmi was Director of Operations and Professional Services for Mu Dynamics, a Silicon Valley-based provider of network security solutions for Fortune 500 clients including communications providers, government agencies and network infrastructure companies. She has also held various positions in consulting and management training at HolteConsulting. In 2017, Laxmi was appointed by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research to serve a three-year term on the Competence Needs Committee, which focuses on identifying the education, skills and competencies needed to fuel the Norwegian labor market and economy into the future. Also in 2017, she was recognised as one of Norway’s top 10 women leaders by Abelia and Oda-Networks. Laxmi holds an M.S degree in Engineering from the University of Colorado and a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of New Mexico.