MONA SONI
ESG & TECHNOLOGY LEADER
Growth-oriented technology executive with extensive experience driving innovation, transformation, and revenue acceleration in financial, education, media and ESG industries. Skilled in leading cross-functional teams to drive innovation, improve efficiency, and enhance customer experiences. Collaborative and system-driven, with a noted ability to tackle critical business and technical issues with clear plans, deliverables, metrics, and reporting. Deep experience working with and presenting to company boards, executive teams and industry forums.
Technical Leadership. Improved delivery efficiency, product development, and built data strategy in senior technology roles at S&P Global, Dow Jones and Amplify. Proven track record of leading and partnering in delivery, product, platform, M&A, strategic investment & integration projects.
Change Management. Directed transformation initiatives that delivered lasting change at Dow Jones and S&P Global. Embraces transparency and communication while aligning people and processes to strategic vision.
Leadership Effectiveness. Fosters teamwork, experimentation, and accountability to ensure short- and long-term results for employees, customers, and shareholders. Builds successful teams by making difficult decisions about talent, embracing existing leaders, promoting high performers, and hiring diverse outside leaders.
Diversity & Inclusion. Champion of diversity, with an exceptional record of inclusion. Passionate about mentoring and sponsoring employees at all levels, while ensuring opportunity for those early in their careers.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
S&P GLOBAL, NEW YORK, NY 2021 To 2023
S&P Global Inc. is an American publicly traded corporation, its primary areas of business are financial information and analytics.
Global Head of ESG Data & Technology
Successfully lead, plan, develop, and implement strategic sustainable technical solutions for this established worldwide organization’s newly created ESG division. Oversee analytics and sophisticated integration of data from new assets and applications. Deliver innovation for all S&P products, driving goals with intentional business acumen. Delve deeply into understanding technical data to improve user experience. Employ innovation through the lens of artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) resulting in greater productivity, value, and profitability.
KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Researched, planned, and built infrastructure for a technical organization from ground zero during COVID-19. Hired, mentored, and trained employees growing staff from zero to 150 direct reports and eight leaders globally.
Served in key leadership role for the launch of a technical acquisition focusing on the physical risk space. Developed an aggressive plan to assimilate people, process and platform integration, resulting in successfully and seamlessly incorporating new assets, and enhanced methodologies for user accessibility.
Defined and performed due diligence for implementation of a security task force, including the formation of infrastructure, regulatory and security practices, policies and procedures, central learning, hiring talent (eight direct reports), and best practices, resulting in a successful model for sustainability.
Migrated and automated two legacy acquisitions. Researched, upgraded and rewrote applications for new and improved enhancements. Led a new acquisition from due diligence to integration.
DOW JONES, NEW YORK, NY 2015 To 2021
Dow Jones & Company, Inc. is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp, the company publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch, Mansion Global, Financial News and Private Equity News.
HEAD OF CAPABILITIES
Provided executive leadership and strategic direction in shaping/improvising the shared services organization as head of capabilities and consumer platforms team in managing portfolio, delivery, product, and engineering aspects across multiple business lines. Continued to review shared services model to ensure best practices are implemented and to deliver strategy to optimize resources, reduce costs, and build strong products aligned with corporate vision. Served in critical role as Chair for Architecture and Technology committee to influence technical decision-making at executive level as well as collaborated with department managers to assess/meet specific needs.
KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Revitalized and served as site lead for the Minneapolis office, which was struggling, resulting in one of the top performing teams competent of working remotely and autonomously with minimal intervention.
Established the startup-engineering department in Barcelona, working on site with them for eight months.
Initiated a Business Agility engineering culture that employs Agile principles on a broader scope to successfully face challenges collaboratively and respond with innovative, transformative solutions.
Led value-added Personalization initiative company-wide to drive revenue/increase consumer engagement.
Successfully converted 20+ legacy systems to Cloud environment in less than one year.
Founded and served as lead mentor for the Women in Dow Jones Technology group, which grew to be a driving force establishing a more diverse workplace with equal growth opportunities for all.
AMPLIFY EDUCATION, NEW YORK, NY 2013 To 2015
Amplify is an education company that provide assessment and analytics for data-driven instruction.
DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING
Began with this subsidiary of News Corp as a divisional manager in charge of 10 QA resources, and was promoted to manage entire organization with oversight of hiring, training, and mentoring 70+ test engineers.
Oversaw the development and delivery efforts for android platform, web applications, and iOS web apps designed for K-12 education systems, utilizing modern tools and technologies.
Transformed division and established an effective regression process inclusive of automation and manual efforts with onshore and offshore teams to support continuous delivery, increasing from a monthly release to a continuous delivery system with releases on a daily basis.
INTENT MEDIA, NEW YORK, NY 2011 To 2013
Intent Media is the data science company for online businesses.
AUTOMATION ENGINEER: Led and established the testing and release process from ground up. Hired, trained, and managed a high-performing team of four QA engineers. Implemented and improved feedback cycle moving from weekly to daily releases.
THOUGHTWORKS, NEW YORK, NY 2009 To 2011
Thoughtworks is a global technology company providing software design and delivery services.
AUTOMATION ENGINEER: Managed a team of five QA engineers. Achieved QA cycle synchronization with development cycle by fostering collaboration across business lines.
Previously employed by Wipro (Information Technology company) as Senior Project Manager. (2006 to 2009)
COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE
READY TO EMPOWER, NEW YORK, NY 2023 To PRESENT
Ready To Empower fosters the empowerment of women worldwide and to drive sustainable change in the community
BOARD MEMBER: Leading and driving change as chair of governance and revenue committees.
EDUCATION & LEADERSHIP
Guest/Keynote speaker at multiple Technical and Leadership Conferences:
BCI Summit, Transforming Data and AI, New York, NY, June 2023
Data + AI Summit, 2022, Vendor Conference, San Francisco, CA CTO Connection, Remote First Approach to a Hybrid Future, March 2022
Executive Leadership Courses Completed:
Harvard Business School Executive Education—Power and Influence, May-June 2023
Harvard Kennedy School—Cybersecurity; The Institute of Policy & Technology, January 2023
University of Cambridge—Sustainable Finance, 8-Week course, July-September 2022
Harvard Business School Executive Education—Women Leadership Forum, February 2022
Harvard Business School Executive Education— Competing in the Age of AI, July 2021
Ignite: Women’s Executive Leadership Program, Dow Jones 2018
Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Computer Science