Akamai Hires Avaya CIO Fari Ebrahimi As Their Chief Information Officer

Global content delivery network (CDN) technology provider, Akamai, has announced the appointment of Fari Ebrahimi as Senior Vice President (SVP) and Chief Information Officer (CIO), effective immediately. Mr. Ebrahimi most recently served as SVP and Global CIO of Avaya, leading the company’s end-to-end digital transformation for 11,000 global employees, 10,000 partners, and thousands of customers worldwide.  

“Fari brings an impressive and proven background of IT operations excellence to Akamai,” said Dr. Tom Leighton, CEO of Akami. “He has demonstrated both significant results and cost savings in leading complex enterprise transformations, especially in the areas of cloud, mobile and security.  We look forward to combining his talents with our existing strong IT team.”

Reporting to the CEO, Fari Ebrahimi will be responsible for end-to-end business transformation including global strategy, development, and operation of the applications and IT infrastructure to enable agile and efficient user experiences for Akamai’s customers, employees, and partners. Mr. Ebrahimi will be based in Akamai’s corporate headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ebrahimi succeeds Kumud Kalia, who will remain with Akamai in an advisory role over the next two months as part of a planned transition.

Prior to Avaya, Mr. Ebrahimi spent 13 years at Verizon Communications in executive IT roles including President of Verizon Information Technologies, where he managed a global IT software and services P&L with annual revenues of $150 million, and as Senior Vice President and CIO of Verizon Services Operations, leading over 4,000 technology professionals focused on streamlining operations across Verizon Communications.

21 U.S. Patents in His Name

“I am delighted to be joining Akamai at such an exciting time,” said Fari Ebrahimi. “Akamai is helping enterprises leverage the Internet to create real, transformative change in the areas of cloud, mobile, and security. As CIO, my goal will be to drive and scale end-to-end digital transformation across all business processes to maximize and secure our customer, partner, and employee experiences, while optimizing operations leveraging Akamai’s world-class solutions.”

With 21 U.S. patents granted in his name and 6 patent application publications, Fari Ebrahimi would be an active publisher and speaker at national and global forums on industry trends impacting today’s CIO.