DVT’s Chief Information and Digital Officer (CIDO), ‘Pat’ Venketash Ramadass
‘Pat’ Venketash Ramadass is the Chief Information and Digital Officer (CIDO) at DVT, a Dynamic Technologies group company.
IT, which had started as a hobby for Pat, grew into a passion and became his career.
As a co-founder of his previous company, he knows what it takes to build a successful company.
In 2023, their team transitioned to DVT and Pat now ensures that the company’s internal technology strategy enables their business strategy without becoming a constraint or risk, while keeping their digital foundation secure and future-ready.
The focus of the role suits Pat as he values collaboration, is skilled at building strong teams and he understands what it takes to drive continual growth and development.
Here he chats about his journey from early dot-com days to his exciting DVT world.
How did you become part of DVT?
I had left South Africa around the time of the dot-com boom and moved to the UK, where I worked for a large internet service provider.
Our team had responsibility across multiple areas and with that came the need to be multi-skilled.
I learnt a great deal from my colleagues, which I will always appreciate.
Then in 2002, my mother had a near-fatal car accident and my grandmother had health challenges.
I needed to be closer to the family and I returned to South Africa.
Fortunately, at that time an opportunity arose to co-found emediaIT with two close friends.
Our initial focus was developing our own products, the first of which was a digital certificate-based solution designed to drive ethical email practices through trust and accountability.
It was the belief that we could change the way things were done that made the early days exciting.
Although we developed a few other products, emediaIT evolved into an IT business solutions company before refocusing on digital transformation, software development and cloud solutions.
After years of growth and diversification, in April 2023 we began the exciting transition of the emediaIT team to DVT.
Through close collaboration, trust and a highly people-centric approach, we ensured the move was a win-win for all concerned – the clients, our team and DVT.
From a client perspective, DVT has provided strong continuity through familiar team members, together with increased scale and additional capabilities.
What attracted you to DVT?
What stood out initially was DVT’s commitment to the values of ‘Lead with heart, solve through insight and live with impact’, which aligned with my own passion for people, technology and community.
It was clear in how we interacted, how decisions were made and how involved executive leadership were in the transition.
The alignment of values combined with DVT’s technical depth and vision made the decision easy.
I have also always been particularly proud of the growth and development of team members, so it was incredibly rewarding to make the transition together.
I need to be able to look back one day knowing that I have made a positive, long-lasting contribution in my field, but more importantly in the lives of others.
All of this aligns well with DVT’s culture and values.
What do you most appreciate about the company?
It is DVT’s ability to provide cutting-edge technology solutions while remaining human.
As we continue to grow across regions and expand our solutions, the prioritisation of people, ethics, technical excellence and quality drives how we do business.
It is not an easy balance to maintain, and it speaks volumes about our leadership and a culture that has been intentionally built over time.
On a personal level, I value the improved work-life balance, which was absent for me before, especially with a young son.
Why is mentorship so important in this day and age?
Mentorship in the age of AI is more important than ever. Although we have increased access to information and capabilities, this has not replaced the need for human values, wisdom and judgement.
Many careers are also changing from being linear to being more fluid, with an increasing need to constantly upskill.
As many leading technologists have pointed out, it is our responsibility as leaders to share knowledge and help guide life and career journeys.
This includes giving less experienced team members opportunities to grow, even if that work could be assigned to AI.
Grounding them in values, experience and judgement while preserving wisdom that cannot easily be codified will help reduce shallow understanding and overconfidence.
This responsibility extends beyond the workplace and, as a father of a young son, I feel that it is less about teaching specific skills and more about instilling the right values, curiosity, empathy, ability to think critically, learn quickly and use their judgement to be the best they can be, including using technology responsibly.
Tell us about your role as CIDO?
The role combines what some consider to be the more traditional responsibilities of a Chief Information Officer (CIO) with those of a Chief Digital Officer (CDO).
At DVT, the position has an internal system focus (as opposed to our CTO that is more external focused) on technology strategy, digital transformation, data, AI and overall IT governance, risk and compliance.
An ongoing challenge in the industry is balancing the need for speed and innovation, both internally and for clients, with budget, risk and compliance.
This has become even more pronounced given the rapid evolution of technology.
I am particularly proud of having helped establish our strategy for AI Governance, laying the foundations for responsible AI adoption across the organisation and leading some of our key initial AI initiatives, such as our M365 Copilot adoption, GitHub Copilot and GitHub Enterprise implementations, our AI Assessment Tool and DeeVee, our DVT Self-Service Agent.
How do you hope to help shape the future of DVT?
Our high-level internal technology vision is for DVT to be a human-led, digitally mature, data- and AI-driven, and security-conscious organisation that uses technology responsibly to enhance capabilities, drive innovation and increase competitive advantage.
We will continue evolving our IT functions into a strategic enabler of the business, as opposed to being more of a support function.
Our internal clients include our various departments, each with their own goals, key measurements, processes and systems.
We need to help them leverage technology effectively to do more.
I see DVT growing from strength to strength, building on our existing expert led, AI-driven software and data engineering solutions.
A key differentiator will continue to be our genuinely human approach, deep technical expertise and the way in which we leverage technologies responsibly.
Our future is also increasingly global, with delivery capacity across multiple regions, while still staying true to our culture and values.
What is happening at DVT that you are particularly proud of?
It has been hugely rewarding to see some of our digital transformation and AI initiatives take shape, launch and add value for the business, and we will continue evolving those solutions over time.
While I cannot share the specifics of some of our work, we are excited to be re-evaluating key operations, systems and platforms.
This allows us to reimagine how things can and should be done, specifically with a view to staying competitive with AI-first or frontier firms and while keeping our internal technology vision in mind.
Leveraging agentic AI solutions further is an important part of these plans.
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Read time: 10 Minutes 48 seconds
Editorial contacts:
On behalf of Dynamic Technologies
Linda Wilkins (Wilkins Ross Communications)
[email protected]
On behalf of DVT
Karen Heydenrych
[email protected]
