Executive Spotlight: Avon Puri, Chief Digital and Information Officer of Sequoia Capital (2027)
Avon Puri is the Chief Digital and Information Officer at Sequoia Capital. Sequoia's own article about its Empirik investment, which is dated September 1, 2026 in the text, calls him "our Chief Digital and Information Officer." A speaker listing for a November 11, 2026 conference session gives the title as Global Chief Digital Officer, which appears to be a shorter wording of the same job.
He matters because he runs technology inside a venture firm and has also helped start companies there. Sequoia says he and Sudheer Dhurjati built the first version of Empirik inside the firm before it became an independent company, and conference biographies list him as a co-founder of Manifest, an enterprise AI company incubated by Sequoia.
Before Sequoia he was the first chief information officer at Rubrik and spent more than eight years at VMware. This page uses public professional information only.
Current role and company
Puri leads digital and information technology at Sequoia Capital, the venture firm. His biography at the BST Global conference says his current focus is using AI to improve user productivity and to modernize core infrastructure and security operations.
- Title (Sequoia article)Chief Digital and Information Officer.
- Title (conference listing, November 11, 2026 session)Global Chief Digital Officer.
- Focus (BST Global biography)AI for user productivity; modernizing core infrastructure and security operations.
- Also (BST Global biography)Co-founder of Manifest, an enterprise AI company incubated by Sequoia.
Career path
- VMware. Sequoia says he held the role of VP of Engineering and Applications at VMware, and his conference biography says he spent more than eight years there running business technologies.
- Rubrik. A Forbes article by Peter High, republished by Metis Strategy on August 27, 2018, reported that Rubrik named him its first chief information officer. Sequoia lists the role as SVP and CIO.
- Sequoia Capital. He now serves as the firm's chief digital and information officer. Sequoia describes his background as two decades running IT and infrastructure at scale.
- Recognition. His BST Global biography says he was named a Computerworld Premier 100 Technology Leader.
What he is known for
- Rubrik's first CIO. At Rubrik he was hired to build the infrastructure, architecture, people and processes to support growth toward $1 billion in revenue, according to the 2018 article.
- Empirik. Sequoia says he and Sudheer Dhurjati built the initial version of Empirik inside the firm. It became an independent company led by CEO Kartik Chandrayana and emerged from stealth with $21 million in funding.
- Manifest. His BST Global biography lists him as a co-founder of Manifest, an enterprise AI company incubated by Sequoia.
- Public speaking. He is listed as a speaker on the session "Voice of Industry Change: Where Capital, Innovation & AI Converge" on November 11, 2026, alongside representatives of AWS and OpenAI.
Leadership style and philosophy
The pages read for this profile include few direct statements from him, so this section is short. Sequoia's article attributes no quotes to him.
- Infrastructure is more than technology. In the 2018 article he said that by infrastructure he meant more than the technology needed to support growth; the article lists architecture, people and processes alongside it.
- Data intelligence. In the same article he said Rubrik needed to foster data intelligence in all that it does.
Key numbers (company-reported)
Figures come from Sequoia and from a 2018 article citing a Rubrik release. They are not independently verified.
- Empirik funding on emerging from stealth (Sequoia article)$21 million.
- Rubrik global bookings run-rate, early 2018 (Rubrik release cited by Forbes)$300 million.
- Rubrik growth target his work supported (2018 article)$1 billion in revenue.
- Years at VMware (BST Global biography)More than eight.
What to watch next
Worth tracking: Sequoia posts about companies incubated in-house, Empirik's progress after its $21 million raise, and his November 11, 2026 conference session.
Questions people ask
Who is Avon Puri?
He is the Chief Digital and Information Officer at Sequoia Capital, a former first CIO at Rubrik and a former VMware executive.
What is Avon Puri's title at Sequoia?
Sequoia's article calls him Chief Digital and Information Officer. A conference listing says Global Chief Digital Officer, and Sequoia's people page lists CDO.
What did Avon Puri do before Sequoia?
He was the first CIO at Rubrik, named in August 2018 per a republished Forbes article, and spent more than eight years at VMware running business technologies.
What is Empirik?
Sequoia says Empirik began as a product that Puri and Sudheer Dhurjati built inside the firm and then became an independent company led by CEO Kartik Chandrayana. It raised $21 million on emerging from stealth.
What is Manifest?
His conference biography describes Manifest as an enterprise AI company incubated by Sequoia, of which he is a co-founder.
Sources
- Sequoia Capital: Avon Puri · Listing and hero photo
- Sequoia Capital: Partnering with Empirik · Title, career summary, Empirik, funding
- BST Global: Avon Puri speaker biography · Career, Manifest, focus areas
- BST Global: Voice of Industry Change session (November 11, 2026) · Session and title listing
- Metis Strategy / Forbes: Longtime VMware exec named CIO of Rubrik (August 27, 2018) · Rubrik appointment and priorities
Facts were read from the linked pages on October 31, 2026. Some pages were read through a fetch tool that returns summaries, so confirm details on the original page. The hero photo is from Sequoia's people page, centered on a card. Company figures are labelled company-reported. This page covers public professional information only.
Top photo: Sequoia Capital (sequoiacap.com/people/avon-puri)