Sumit Johar

Recent appearances

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  Why most IT teams don't drive growth | Insights from a Chief Information Officer

  May 18, 2026 · 📺 Mala's Podcast

  In this episode, Mala sits down with Sumit Johar, CIO of BlackLine, for an insightful conversation on AI transformation, enterprise IT, finance technology, cybersecurity, and what it takes to drive change inside highly regulated organizations. Sumit leads technology at BlackLine, a SaaS company serving finance organizations across the world. In this conversation, he shares why AI adoption in finance is especially challenging, because hallucinations, vague outputs, and “almost accurate” results simply do not work in environments where trust, predictability, auditability, and governance matter.…

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  How to pitch a CIO

  April 29, 2026 · 📺 Foundation Capital

  When selling software, which tactics actually move the needle? Our CIO dinner gave our founders a rare opportunity to ask that question, and more. In small groups followed by a panel discussion, three CIOs—Karthik Chakkarapani (Zuora), Saket Srivastava (Asana), and Sumit Johar (BlackLine)—shared what helps teams move from pilots to production, offering advice and feedback outside the sales cycle. Some of their key takeaways: warm introductions over cold outreach, champions nurtured from within the business, genuine buy-in across both business leads and IT, and more. 0:00 – Intros 0:59 – The…

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  AI in Finance: Why 99.9% Accuracy Isn’t Enough | CIO Insights with Sumit Johar

  March 30, 2026 · 📺 RISE Podcast

  In this episode, Sumit Johar, Chief Information Officer at BlackLine, shares insights from over two decades of experience in enterprise technology, automation, and AI. The conversation traces the evolution of enterprise systems—from early integration challenges and middleware to RPA and now AI-driven automation. Sumit highlights how what once felt like “magic” in connecting systems has evolved into intelligent, agent-based architectures that are redefining how businesses operate. A major theme is the transformation of the CIO role. Once predicted to become obsolete, it is now more critical t…

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  3440 Blackline CIO and CTO on Governing AI Inside the Enterprise

  October 03, 2025 · 📺 Neil C. Hughes

  What happens when a CTO and a CIO of a global tech company sit down together to talk about AI? That’s the starting point of today’s episode, where I’m joined by Jeremy Ung, CTO at Blackline, and Sumit Johar, the company’s CIO. Rather than chasing the hype, we focus on what AI really means for executive decision making, governance, and business outcomes. Both leaders open up about how their partnership is blurring the traditional lines between product and IT, and why the board is demanding answers on topics that once sat deep in the technology stack. Jeremy and Sumit explain why AI is not j…

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