Raj Velmurugan

Raj Velmurugan is Vice President & Global CIO at Harley-Davidson.

Raj is a distinguished technology executive and digital transformation leader with over 25 years of experience driving business value through large-scale innovation. As the CIO at Harley-Davidson, Raj oversees the global digital technology organization for both the Motor Company and Financial Services, and is responsible for the global IT operations.

At Harley-Davidson, Raj has pioneered a cloud-enabled transformation, successfully migrating 80% of company assets to the cloud within two years while securing C-suite support for a multi-year roadmap to eliminate technical debt. His strategic foresight is further evidenced by his leadership of a high-stakes ERP implementation planning phase and the establishment of a robust data strategy that introduced advanced analytics and AI/ML readiness to the enterprise. Beyond infrastructure, Raj has been instrumental in business agility, leading the transition of LiveWire to an independent public entity by implementing nimble ERP solutions.

Prior to his role at Harley-Davidson, Raj served as CIO of Salem Five Bank, where he digitized the workforce and achieved a 30% reduction in data center costs through cloud migration, a transformation that proved vital for seamless operations during the 2020 pandemic. Earlier in his career at Bose Corporation, he held several senior leadership roles, including Chief IT Architect and Sr. Director of Digital IT. At Bose, he pioneered the first-generation IoT platform for connected products and led a global digital transformation of 300+ websites, resulting in a 40% increase in traffic and online sales.

Known for his ability to self-fund innovation, Raj achieved tremendous cost optimization by modernizing the application landscape and aggressively reducing technical debt. He is a champion of Agile transformation, moving traditional functional organizations toward high-velocity delivery models.

Raj holds an M.S. in Information Technology from Capella University and a B.S. from the University of Madras. He is an active member of the executive community, serving as a Governing Body Member for the Evanta Atlanta CIO chapter and on the CIO Advisory Council for United Way Technology United.