Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, June 2026 – Ralph Lauren Corporation has appointed Dr. Tathagat Varma as Vice President & Head of Global Capability Centre (GCC), India, marking a significant step in strengthening the luxury lifestyle brand’s technology, innovation, and global capability operations in India.
Dr. Varma brings more than three decades of leadership experience spanning global capability centres, digital transformation, technology strategy, innovation, organizational effectiveness, and large-scale business operations. His appointment reflects Ralph Lauren’s continued investment in leveraging global talent and innovation capabilities to support its worldwide growth strategy.
Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Varma has been recognized for building and scaling high-performing organizations, driving enterprise transformation programs, and establishing world-class capability centres for leading global enterprises.
Prior to joining Ralph Lauren, Dr. Varma served as Global TechOps Leader at Walmart Global Tech, where he led the Next Generation Tech Stack program responsible for enterprise-wide digital transformation, cloud adoption, technology modernization, and data quality initiatives across Walmart Stores, Sam’s Clubs, and distribution centers globally. His leadership focused on enabling large-scale technology transformation and operational excellence.
Earlier, he spent nearly four years as Vice President Strategy and Chief of Staff at Walmart Global Tech India, where he led technology strategy, business operations, enterprise agile transformation, innovation programs, technical learning initiatives, startup ecosystem engagement, and organizational effectiveness programs. During this period, he played a pivotal role in strengthening Walmart’s India technology organization and supporting strategic growth initiatives.
Dr. Varma also served as Country Manager at NerdWallet, where he was tasked with establishing the company’s India operations, and as Country Head and General Manager at ChinaSoft International, where he built the organization’s India presence from the ground up and developed a successful technology and delivery organization serving global markets.
His entrepreneurial journey includes founding ThoughtLeadership.in and later Cognitive Chasm, where his doctoral research led to the development of the Theory of Cognitive Chasms, a framework exploring enterprise adoption challenges associated with Generative AI and digital transformation. Through these ventures, he has advised organizations worldwide on strategy, innovation, leadership, agile transformation, and organizational change.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Varma has also held senior leadership positions with Yahoo!, NetScout Systems, Network General, McAfee, Huawei, Philips, Siemens, and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). His extensive experience includes building India development centres from inception, leading global engineering organizations, driving enterprise transformation, and developing large-scale technology platforms and innovation ecosystems.
Ralph Lauren Corporation is a global leader in the design, marketing, and distribution of luxury lifestyle products across apparel, footwear, accessories, home furnishings, fragrances, and hospitality. Since its founding in 1967, the company has built one of the world’s most recognized portfolios of premium consumer brands, including Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Collection, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren, Double RL, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren Children, and Chaps.
Headquartered in the United States, Ralph Lauren has spent more than five decades shaping aspirational lifestyle branding through its distinctive American perspective, combining timeless design, innovation, and consumer insight to create products and experiences enjoyed by customers around the world.
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