Roger Kurian spent over 25 years building his career in the IT industry while applying his skills in various positions and for various companies. We sat down with Roger Kurian to discuss his many years of experience as well as his most interesting project.
Roger Kurian began his career in IT and Computer Science at Bombay University in India, where he completed his undergraduate degree. “I was a stellar candidate. And that got me to pursue my master’s degree,” says Roger Kurian.
Due to his excellent grades in undergraduate as well as high scores in the Graduate Records Examination, he applied and was accepted to the Masters in Computer Science program at Kent State University, Ohio.
Roger Kurian says, “I had to take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) to come to America to do a master’s degree. After taking it, I found out that I had received the GRE honors certificate for scoring the highest score in the GRE experimental section all over the world, for people who have taken the GRE during that particular year.”
His success continued when he went to pursue his master’s degree, with Roger Kurian successfully defending his fascinating thesis. “My master’s thesis was published on the Kent State University website. It’s a thesis called the benefits to management of using GQM, (which stands for Goal Question Metric) continuous GQM and VGQM, and a measurement program. I have received various accolades for this thesis defense and presentation, which I presented in 2009,” says Roger Kurian.
Throughout his years of schooling, Roger Kurian worked on receiving various certifications (CSF, CSM, CSPO), and even received his real estate license and worked for a while in Real Estate. Soon after his graduation, he began working his way up through the ranks of various companies and in various exciting roles and industries.
“I have over 25 years of IT industry experience. 15 of those years have been in the financial industry, where I’ve worked with companies of the likes of JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Citi Group, Stanford Financial, so on and so forth. I have about 6+ years of oil and gas experience where I’ve worked with Shell, 4 years of healthcare experience, and 4 years of utility/energy experience.”
The last project that Roger Kurian worked on, was one that he believes was incredibly rewarding. This project was during the time that he worked for the company CGI which is in the utility sector. Roger Kuran says, “I worked with a product called ARM, which stands for asset and resource management. I was the key Engagement Manager/ salesperson/ programs/ project manager on this product and was responsible for its implementation across North America.”
This product is being successfully used by approximately 62% of utility companies in North America, with Roger Kurian being responsible for implementing it in companies such as Dominion Electric, Louisville Gas and Electric (also called LGE), and Duke Energy.
While working in these various roles, one main thing that Roger Kurian learned, and would like to share is the value of working your way up. “In my experience, I think it is always important to take baby steps and learn through the ropes,” says Roger Kurian.
