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StubHub CTO Raji Arasu Embraces Executive Role In Male-Dominated Technology Industry

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This sports business executive profile is part of a series of articles, titled ‘Noisemakers.’ The stories highlight C-level executives, SVPs, Founders, Presidents, Athletic Directors and other high-ranking individuals shaping our industry today.

In a field predominantly dominated by men, Raji Arasu knows what it feels like to be one of the few senior level executives in the technology industry. In fact, just 9% are women, according to a 2012 survey.

Over the last 25 years, StubHub’s Chief Technology Officer has embraced the state of the industry. Even as a college student back home in India, Arasu remembers being one of five girls in a 200-person computer engineering/science class.

Growing up overseas, Arasu had thoughts of working for NASA or even being a doctor before settling on engineering. Her experiences and life choices eventually brought her to the United States. In 2001, she started her long tenure with eBay , Inc., a company where she drove product innovation, enhanced checkout services and revamped shipping procedures.

Through her current role at StubHub, she’s been able to create disruptive experiences for how people shop and attend sporting and entertaining events.

Raji Arasu has been the CTO at StubHub since late 2011 (Courtesy of StubHub).

“As a technologist in Silicon Valley, it’s one of the coolest jobs to have,” Arasu now says.

She described how over half of StubHub’s leadership team is comprised of women, where diversity starts from the top. She sees it as a necessity considering it’s not just men utilizing StubHub’s platform.

“If you don’t have women at the seat of the table thinking of ideas, building products and tackling business problems, then you’re missing one part of the customer base,” she added.

At a bird’s eye of 30,000 feet, Arasu is tasked with broadly looking at StubHub, how she can be a ‘Change Agent’ and lay out technology and product strategy for the future. Much of that will be a constant focus on making the service more mobile-centric in 2015.

StubHub’s journey into mobile really started in 2013, according to Arasu. It was then that her and the leadership team realized that their attention should be directed there. The following year, StubHub’s site became fully responsive, so consumers could have an optimal experience on mobile. Arasu also commented that there will be an emphasis on group buying over the coming months as well.

While she is certainly focused on introducing new technologies to fans and consumers — it’s what her job essentially entails — Arasu is also committed to being a voice for females who want to pursue a career in technology and sport.

“Female students need to hear more about our failures compared to our successes,” Arasu said. “Everyone has lots and lots of struggles and failures before moving up. People are fired and some aren’t promoted fast enough, but younger aspiring professionals need to hear those war stories and struggles to know that everyone faces some difficulty before finding success.”

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