From Fortune 500 to a growing AI company: UiPath CFO Ashim Gupta
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In early 2018, Ashim Gupta was either on a path to become “a lifelong GE person” or poised to try something completely new with a young company in an unrelated industry.
Gupta had spent nearly 20 years in multiple finance roles at General Electric by then, including serving as CFO of GE Engineered Systems and GE Water. When he was named senior vice president and chief information officer of finance and global operations in 2016, though, a crucial vendor decision created an entirely new career path for the man who originally thought he would be a diplomat.
In the CIO role, Gupta was responsible for enterprise applications for finance, automation, and ERP and big data strategy. He became one of technology startup UiPath’s first customers, selecting the firm to help automate and streamline GE’s business processes.
When UiPath’s founder and CEO invited Gupta to join the leadership team in a non-finance role in 2018, Gupta accepted, becoming the organization’s chief customer success officer. He was named CFO in 2019, and last month, added the COO role to his responsibilities.
Ashim Gupta
CFO and COO, UiPath
First CFO position: 2010
Notable previous employers:
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GE
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
SANDRA BECKWITH: You joined UiPath after using the company’s product at GE. Why did you shift from one of the world’s largest corporations to a software startup?
ASHIM GUPTA: When I told UiPath’s CEO Daniel Dines in early 2018 that I had to lay off 500 people, ironically, he said he had to hire 500 people in the next 18 months. I thought it sounded like more fun to hire people than to fire them.
Technology was really taking off then. If I wanted to do something else, this was a good moment to do it. It was the right time, it was the right energy, and it was immensely scary because I hadn’t done anything like this before.
Why did you join UiPath specifically, and why as chief customer success officer?
GUPTA: The company was focused on growth at the time. Understanding your customer base is really critical to growth, and I understood UiPath’s, which is Fortune 500 and Global 2000 CFOs and CIOs.
This was my first customer-facing role, and I accepted the offer for two reasons. First, the company’s metrics were impressive, and I really loved the organization. Just as importantly, though, I was following well-known advice from GE’s former vice chairman, John Rice. He said that to grow, you have to go where you feel most insecure, because that’s where you’ll learn the most.