Avon Puri

Running digital and IT at Sequoia

Avon Puri is the chief digital and information officer of Sequoia Capital, the title used in the firm's own writing. A speaker biography for a 2026 industry conference gives it as global chief digital officer, a small difference in wording for what appears to be the same post.^[1][2]

His stated interests, per that biography, are using AI to raise the productivity of users and to modernize core infrastructure and security operations.^[2][3]

Sequoia's account of his work shows the role extends beyond keeping systems running: it has produced software that left the firm as an independent company.^[1]

Building inside Sequoia: Empirik and Manifest

In a September 2026 post about Empirik, Sequoia said Puri and Sudheer Dhurjati built the first version of the product inside the firm. After Sequoia's usual evaluation it was spun out as an independent company led by chief executive Kartik Chandrayana, and has since emerged from stealth with $21 million in funding. The post describes the product as an autonomous infrastructure engineer.^[1]

Conference biographies also list him as a co-founder of Manifest, described as an enterprise AI company incubated by Sequoia.^[2][3]

Taken together, the two efforts show an internal technology leader at an investment firm helping to start companies rather than only buying software.^[1][2]

Rubrik: first chief information officer

Rubrik, the Palo Alto data-protection company, named Puri its first chief information officer in August 2018. A Forbes article by Peter High, republished by Metis Strategy, described him as a longtime VMware executive and set out his priorities: build the infrastructure, architecture, people and processes to support growth toward $1 billion in revenue, and build on Rubrik's lead in data management and protection by fostering data intelligence throughout the company. Rubrik had reported a $300 million bookings run-rate earlier that year.^[4]

A Modern CTO podcast profile from his Rubrik days says he led the global IT organization, covering technical infrastructure, operations and information security. In it he described building IT from the ground up as the company grew from about 900 to about 1,600 employees, and argued that early investment in infrastructure prevents expensive rework later.^[5]

He also described running Rubrik on its own product, an approach the company calls Rubrik on Rubrik, so that developers could recover quickly from outages. Sequoia's later article lists his title there as senior vice president and CIO.^[1][5]

VMware and earlier roles

Before Rubrik he was vice president of engineering and applications at VMware by Sequoia's description, and vice president of business applications by the podcast's. The conference biography puts his VMware tenure at more than eight years, leading business technology.^[1][2][5]

The podcast profile adds earlier IT leadership roles at Franklin Templeton Investments and Deloitte, and a start at IBM in New York. Sequoia says he has about two decades of experience running IT and infrastructure at scale.^[1][5]

He holds a master's degree in computer science from Pace University, and the 2026 conference biography notes that Computerworld named him a Premier 100 Technology Leader.^[2][5]

How he leads

On the Modern CTO podcast he described a career that moved from hands-on developer to team lead, manager and director, and argued that technical experience still matters when setting strategy. He favors a bias for action, saying quick decisions with clear direction beat prolonged indecision, particularly because reversible choices let teams adjust.^[5]

He described structuring teams around clear functional ownership with defined goals and metrics, and treating communication and the ability to align teams as core skills for leaders. He also pointed to Rubrik's culture of transparency, velocity, integrity and relentlessness, including inviting employees to board meetings.^[5]

His career advice in the same episode was that working at smaller companies early can broaden experience faster than a narrowly defined job at a large corporation.^[5]

Recent and upcoming appearances

A Sequoia article on Empirik dated September 2026 is the most recent published account of his work. He is also listed as a panelist at BST Global's conference on November 11, 2026, in a session titled Voice of Industry Change: Where Capital, Innovation and AI Converge, alongside leaders from AWS and OpenAI.^[1][3]

Why he matters

Puri is a case of the corporate IT leader becoming a builder of companies. He ran IT through a hyper-growth phase at Rubrik, then took the same job at one of the most prominent venture firms and used it to help turn internal tools into startups.^[1][4][5]

Public material about him is still limited, mostly conference biographies, a podcast and the Sequoia article, so details about his Sequoia start date and the scope of Manifest remain unpublished.^[1][2][3]

On The Executive List

Avon Puri is ranked No. 75 on The Executive List (October 2026) in the Chief Information Officers discipline. The ranking reflects The Executive Review's own editorial Trending Score; it is not an outside award, and placement on the list is never sold. View the October 2026 edition.