
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


In this episode of the Titanium Economy Podcast, Mohit Jaju, President and Head of Operations Excellence at Ayna, speaks with Mark Schwartz, Group President of AECO Software at Trimble, about how a company built on positioning hardware became one of the largest software and AI platforms in construction. Mark explains why transformation is 80% people and process and only 20% technology, how Trimble moved from running acquisitions independently to integrating them from day zero, and what it takes to put AI agents on top of decades of fragmented construction data. The conversation covers Agent Studio, operational intelligence, capital discipline, and why writing code faster does not make enterprise software easy.
Mark Schwartz is Group President of AECO Software at Trimble, the $3.6 billion company connecting the physical and digital worlds across construction, geospatial, and transportation. Fiscal 2025 closed with a record $2.39 billion in annualized recurring revenue as the shift to subscription nears completion. Schwartz joined via acquisition in 2010, spent a decade in finance and operations, and became Chief Digital Officer in 2020 before taking over AECO. He unveiled Trimble's AI strategy and Agent Studio at Dimensions in November 2025, followed by the April 2026 acquisition of Document Crunch.
Discussion Points
For More Information
Mark Schwartz LinkedIn
Trimble Inc
The Titanium Economy
Ayna Website
In this episode of the Titanium Economy Podcast, Buvna Ayyagari, SVP of New Ventures at Synopsys, talks to Vineet Gupta, President and Head of Semiconductor at Ayna about how the simulation and AI capabilities that transformed chip design can also revolutionize health and life sciences. She explains how Synopsys, further strengthened by its ANSYS acquisition, is uniquely positioned to apply its multi-physics simulation and AI expertise to the hardest problems in health and life sciences. Buvna draws a parallel between the evolution of EDA in chip design and the journey ahead for healthcare, arguing that ecosystem collaboration, standardization, and reusable models are key to accelerating adoption. She also shares her personal mission to make quality healthcare universally accessible through technology, and offers career advice centered on curiosity, resilience, and following your passion.
Buvna Ayyagari is SVP of New Ventures at Synopsys, where she leads the company's expansion into health and life sciences, applying AI-powered multi-physics simulation to improve patient and population-level outcomes. Her career spans senior roles at Intel, Applied Materials, and Renesas, including scaling Synopsys's Interface IP business and building a materials-to-systems digital twin platform at Applied Materials.
Discussion Points
For More Information
Buvna Ayyagari LinkedIn
Synopsys Inc
The Titanium Economy
Ayna Website
In this episode of the Titanium Economy Podcast, Mohit Jaju, President and Head of Operations Excellence at Ayna, speaks with Riaz Raihan, Chief Digital Officer of Trane Technologies, about how AI and digital innovation are transforming industrial manufacturing and sustainable buildings. Riaz shares how Trane Technologies is using AI, IoT, and predictive analytics to optimize HVAC systems, reduce energy waste, and accelerate its net-zero goals. The conversation covers BrainBox AI, smart buildings, industrial AI adoption, and why execution matters more than waiting for perfect data.
Riaz Raihan is SVP and Chief Digital Officer of Trane Technologies, the $21B global climate innovator behind the Trane Technologies and Thermo King brands. A mechanical engineer by training and Stanford Management Program graduate, he led multi-billion-dollar business units at SAP, Cisco, and Infor before joining Trane Technologies as its first CDO. He is a member of MENSA International and the Forbes Technology Council.
Discussion Points
For More Information
Riaz Raihan LinkedIn
Trane Technologies
Ayna Website
In this episode of the Titanium Economy Podcast, Scott Barbour, CEO of Advanced Drainage Systems, talks with Akshay Sethi, President & Head of Commercial Excellence at Ayna, about how ADS grew from a $2 billion to $10 billion market cap through operations, acquisitions, and capital allocation. Scott explains how ADS manages stormwater and septic systems while recycling 500 million pounds of plastic annually, and how acquisitions like Infiltrator and NDS expanded their water management capabilities. The conversation covers focus, operational discipline, engineering innovation, and what it takes to attract talent to industrial businesses.
Scott Barbour is President and CEO of Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS), the North American leader in stormwater and on-site septic solutions, with approximately $3 billion in revenue and a market cap exceeding $10 billion. Before ADS, he spent 27 years at Emerson Electric in senior roles across business units, geographies, and P&Ls. Since becoming CEO, Barbour has driven a 6x increase in market cap through disciplined pricing, manufacturing transformation, acquisitions including Infiltrator and NDS, and a pioneering recycled plastics strategy.
Discussion Points
For More Information
Scott Barbour LinkedIn
ADS Website
The Titanium Economy
Ayna.AI Website
In this episode of the Titanium Economy Podcast, Chris Bergey, EVP of the Edge AI Business Unit at Arm, talks to Akshay Sethi, President & Head of Commercial Excellence at Ayna. Chris breaks down how Arm became foundational to modern computing, from smartphones to hyperscale AI infrastructure, and shares insights on Arm's AI strategy, the rise of inference workloads, the transition to Arm v9, and why ecosystem scale remains its biggest competitive advantage. The conversation also covers edge AI, cloud computing, industrial automation, and semiconductors' next wave of innovation. A must-watch for anyone following AI, semiconductors, and the future of computing.
Chris Bergey is leading the Edge AI business unit at Arm Holdings, a semiconductor IP company whose architecture powers 99% of smartphones a compute platform that touches 100% of the global population. With over 30 years of industry experience, he has held senior leadership roles at AMD, Western Digital, SanDisk, and Broadcom, as well as across multiple divisions within Arm, including infrastructure, client computing, and now Edge AI. A regular keynote presence at Mobile World Congress, CES, Embedded World, and Computex, Bergey is widely regarded as a leading voice on edge inference, AI silicon strategy, and heterogeneous computing.
Discussion Points
For More Information
Chris Bergey
Arm Website
Titanium Economy
Ayna Website
In this episode of the Titanium Economy podcast, Gaurav Batra, CEO of Ayna, sits down with Greif CFO Larry Hilsheimer to unpack how a 150-year-old industrial packaging company has reinvented itself through disciplined capital allocation, portfolio transformation, and customer-centric strategy. Larry shares how Greif improved margins by prioritizing value over volume, exited non-core businesses, and built a high-performing culture grounded in customer intimacy. They also explore AI adoption, ERP transformation, and how industrial companies can thrive through prolonged economic cycles. This conversation is a must-watch for leaders interested in resilient growth, operational excellence, and long-term value creation.
Larry Hilsheimer is Executive Vice President and CFO of Greif, Inc., a global industrial packaging leader with approximately $4.5 billion in annual revenue across 40 countries. He brings nearly three decades of experience from Deloitte, spanning tax advisory, corporate transactions, and senior executive roles, before serving as CFO of Nationwide Mutual Insurance during the 2008 financial crisis and taking on financial leadership at Scotts Miracle-Gro. At Greif, he has been the financial architect of a transformational decade defined by $2.5 billion in strategic acquisitions, approximately $3.5 billion in dispositions, and a deliberate shift toward less-cyclical end markets.
Discussion Points
For More Information
Greif
The Titanium Economy
Ayna Website
Digital twins can already predict the failure of a million-dollar industrial asset with 99% accuracy — so why are engineers on the ground still resisting adopting them, and who has to move first to break that deadlock?
In this episode of the Titanium Economy podcast, host Vineet Gupta sits down with Prith Banerjee, Senior Vice President of Innovation at Synopsys, to explore the convergent forces reshaping semiconductor and systems engineering. Prith details how the $35 billion ANSYS acquisition and $2 billion Nvidia partnership position Synopsys to command the emerging chip-to-system design market. He explains how agentic AI is compressing design cycles for trillion-transistor chips, how physics-based digital twins achieve 99% predictive accuracy in industrial deployments, and why passionate pursuit of one's "true north" defines enduring innovation across academia, entrepreneurship, and global enterprise.
Prith Banerjee is Senior Vice President of Innovation at Synopsys, leading the company's technology strategy across EDA, simulation, and IP. With an extraordinary career bridging elite academia, serial entrepreneurship, and Fortune 500 leadership, he has served as CTO at Ansys, EVP and CTO at Schneider Electric, EVP and CTO at ABB, and SVP of Research at HP Labs. A professor turned founder, he established AccelChip (acquired by Xilinx) and BINACHIP, authored over 350 technical papers, and supervised 37 PhD students. A Fellow of IEEE, ACM, and AAAS, Banerjee holds degrees from IIT Kharagpur and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Discussion Points
For More Information
Prith Banerjee LinkedIn
Synopsys.com
Ansys.com (acquired by Synopsys; tools including Fluent, HFSS, Mechanical, Red Hawk, LSDyna, Twin Builder, SIM AI, OptiSLang)
Ayna Website
In this episode of the Titanium Economy Podcast, host Vineet Gupta speaks with Luca Savi, President and CEO of ITT. Luca shares how ITT wins through execution, innovation, and deep customer intimacy and how the company is deliberately shifting its portfolio away from cyclical markets through disciplined M&A focused on value creation. The conversation covers leadership, culture, and what it takes to build urgency, agility, and accountability across a global organization. Luca closes with the key bets ITT is making toward its 2030 vision.
Luca Savi is President and CEO of ITT Inc. He joined ITT in 2011 as President of Motion Technologies, after senior roles at Comau (Fiat Group) and Honeywell International across Italy, China, and the US. He holds a Chemical Engineering degree from Politecnico di Milano, an MBA from London Business School, and serves on the board of MSA Safety Inc.
Show Notes
For More Information
ITT
Luca Savi LinkedIn
Ayna Website
In this episode of the Titanium Economy Podcast, Akshay Sethi, President and Head of Commercial Excellence at Ayna, talks with Anand Sanghi, President, Americas at Vertiv about how AI is driving changes in infrastructure, innovation, and business growth. They discuss Vertiv’s approach to scaling global operations, staying close to customers, and using R&D to stay ahead in a fast-changing tech landscape. They also discuss how the company navigates AI demand, develops reliable solutions, and plans for the future of critical infrastructure.
Anand Sanghi is the Head of Americas at Vertiv, a global leader in critical digital infrastructure solutions encompassing power, cooling, and lifecycle services for data centers, telecommunications networks, and industrial environments. He was previously president for Vertiv Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea and India (ASI). Sanghi holds an engineering degree from IIT and an MBA from IIM.
Discussion Points
For More Information
Vertiv
Anand Sanghi LinkedIn
Ayna Website
In this episode, Akshay Sethi sits down with Olivier Biebuyck, President of Fabrication Technology at ESAB, to discuss how industrial companies can unlock growth through commercial excellence. Olivier shares lessons from ESAB’s acquisition journey and explains why pricing, sales effectiveness, and data have become critical levers for growth. The conversation explores how commercial integration drives post-merger value, how customer expectations in industrial markets have shifted, and why buyers now expect an Amazon-like experience.
They also discuss how ESAB is approaching AI in a focused, problem-led way across sales, pricing, and digital channels, and why the biggest opportunity with AI is enabling sales teams to spend more time with customers. Olivier closes with advice for emerging commercial leaders on staying close to customers and building truly customer-centric strategies.
Olivier Biebuyck serves as Global President of Fabrication Technology at ESAB, a $2.5 billion welding and fabrication technology company operating in over 100 countries. His ESAB career encompasses leading the Filler Metals division, directing the Sandvik Welding Technologies acquisition, and serving as Head of EMEA and Global Products. Previously, Biebuyck held the Chief Marketing Officer position for Honeywell's Process Technology division. He began his career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he developed expertise in consumer goods before transitioning to industrial B2B sectors.
Discussion Points
For More Information
ESAB Corp
Olivier Biebuyck LinkedIn
Titanium Economy
Ayna Website
From the publisher's feed