On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2025, Ruma Balasubramanian, President Asia Pacific and Japan, Check Point Software Technologies, discusses her thoughts on workplace diversity and its impact on making an enterprise the best place it can be.
Your journey from leadership roles at Google Cloud and Cisco to your current role at Check Point reflects a wealth of experience. Could you describe how these experiences have shaped your vision for cybersecurity across APAC?
Today’s CIOs, CTOs and CISOs are facing a very complex IT landscape and the threat vectors are increasing. Attackers are coming in from on-prem networks, from one or more clouds, from endpoints and even IOT devices and sensors.
In each of my roles, I’ve been at the forefront of these technology transitions that pose their own challenges and I’ve worked with each of these threat vectors as opportunities. But the reality is that if we don’t secure them properly, companies will be vulnerable to attacks.
What are some defining moments in your career that have shaped your approach to leadership?
Most of my career defining moments have been about intentional and strategic disruption. For example, in deciding to move to Asia, while it was very disruptive for my family at the time, it was also a very strategic move for them as well. My husband and I raised two daughters in Asia who have a strong world view, which they acquired only through our time here.
When I was very comfortable in one of my roles, I intentionally took on a partner leadership role which was one of the greatest challenges of my career. There, I came to understand the power and nuance of partnerships, and how companies can scale through partnerships.
I value strategic disruption that enables teams to see the forest for the trees, helps to start businesses within businesses, first as experiments and then as part of the overall business.
What have been some of the most challenging and empowering moments you’ve experienced as a woman leading in a traditionally male-dominated industry, and how have these experiences shaped your leadership style?
I’ve spent half of my career in the US and the other half in Asia. For many years, I came to think of myself as not very different to my male colleagues. But that impression changed significantly after I came to Asia.
I still remember my first time in South Korea in 2008. I was conducting a Town Hall and the attendees were asked to write one question for the visiting leader on a white notecard in English. They would be asked to read the question aloud during Q&A time. This was the country leader’s way of getting employees to practice their English while also getting them to ask a thoughtful question. At the end of my presentation, I asked if anyone had any questions. One lone hand came up. She stood up and her voice wavered. I don’t even remember what her question was but I was in awe of the courage that she demonstrated in asking the first question in front of her male colleagues. That individual helped me understand the gravity of my role and the importance of setting a strong example for women in the industry.
How do you foster an inclusive and empowering environment for your team, and can you share one memorable instance where you saw this in action?
In many Asian cultures, there are many excuses for women to not be promoted into roles with increasing responsibility. Some that I’ve come across: male colleagues will leave, she won’t have time for evening customer commitments because she needs to be with her family, she can’t travel (for the same reason). I’ve found that asking questions and understanding more deeply what the objections are helps to bridge these challenges. In one instance, we were looking to promote a female leader to a sales management position. I received a significant pushback from country leadership because they felt that her male peers (all top performers like the woman we wanted to promote) would leave the organisation. My simple response was – let them. We need to back the person who we think is the strongest fit for the role.
In your role leading diverse teams across APAC, how do you ensure that diversity and inclusion remain at the core of your strategic decisions?
For every open role in my organisation, I force the talent acquisition team of my company to search for qualified female candidates to balance out the male candidates. In my organisation at Google, we had a balanced team with 50-50 gender representation as well as diversity of cultures from Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and India.
What key equity milestones or improvements have you observed or experienced in the workplace over the past 30 years?
Women are increasingly being recognised as strong engineers and business / sales leaders. The number of women I’ve personally worked with as peers has increased over the past 10-15 years mainly because women have earned the right to sit at the table with everyone else with similar experiences and qualifications.
Additionally, in tech, we constantly shift the definition of what “good” looks like, and some of those characteristics play to the strengths of women. For example, no longer is it ok to be just a good coder or a strong analyst. Tech and business professionals need to communicate outcomes and collaborate across diverse teams. These are characteristics that women traditionally have excelled in.
Have they helped you personally and if so, how?
Yes. For example, in the APAC region, the ability to understand and collaborate across multiple cultures plays to my strengths. The ability to think both strategically (through a telescope) and tactically (through a microscope) is essential to any business leadership role in APAC and I feel that that is also a strength of mine. Finally, the agility to weather economic and geopolitical storms (which is increasingly becoming a must-have for senior leaders) is something I get excited about because that sort of disruption many times leads to opportunity and growth.
What steps or initiatives are needed to help women continue to progress towards greater gender equality in the workplace?
We are in an era where women need to continue proving themselves. A few of the areas where we have seen some progress (but still need to see more): compensation parity; timeline for promotion; women’s influence on AI tools and systems. These are all areas where we need to make progress in the coming years.
If you could invite one influential woman leader from any field to dinner, who would it be and why?
Indra Nooyi, a strong Indian American businesswoman who became one of the most influential female corporate leaders of our time. She is very relatable to many women and especially to me as an Indian American who has taken on global roles. She has fought for policies that help women become better leaders, but also become better caregivers and community leaders.
When the pressure of leading a multi-country team mounts, do you have any quirky hobbies or personal rituals that help you recharge and bring fresh perspectives back to work?
I’m in the job of my dreams, leading a company with deep values, a culture of innovation, and great people – in the highest growth and most interesting geography of the world. I’m right where I want to be. But these kind of roles are pressure-filled … so I take the time to exercise 3-5 times per week and when I don’t have time to exercise, I find that moments of calm and deep breathing in between emails and calls helps a lot.
What is your go-to mantra/ piece of advice that helps you overcome challenges and stay motivated that you will like to pass along to aspiring women in tech?
I wake up every day very with overwhelming gratitude for the opportunities I’ve earned, the people I’ve surrounded myself with, and the mission that my team and I are here to achieve. I would argue that cybersecurity professionals are the most important part of the technology industry today. And at Check Point Software Technologies I work for a company that serves those professionals to do their jobs more effectively day in and day out.
