Soma Venkat

Soma Venkat, Ph. D., serves as senior vice president and chief information technology officer for Cooper Standard. Based at the Company’s world headquarters in Northville, Mich., Venkat is responsible for leading Cooper Standard’s information technology (IT) function and reports to the Company's Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Edwards.

Prior to joining Cooper Standard in 2021, Venkat served as chief information officer for IXS (Innovative Xcessories and Services), a provider of vehicle uplift services and coating solutions. In this role, Venkat was instrumental in turning around the IT team to successfully deliver multiple digitization, data and cyber-security initiatives enabling business resilience during the COVID pandemic. From 2016 to 2020, Venkat held roles of increasing responsibility at Cooper Standard, most recently as global vice president, information technology.

Prior, he was the co-founder and chief operating officer at the technology startup, InfoShuk. Previously, Venkat held IT leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Meritor, Masco Corp. and ProQuest. He started his career as a senior consultant at Oracle Corp.

Venkat earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Madras in India and a Master of Applied Science degree in applied mathematics from The College of Engineering in Guindy, India. In addition, he holds a Master of Science degree in computational mathematics and a Ph.D. in computational mathematics from the University of Windsor in Canada. Venkat is a six sigma Black Belt and has also completed several executive certificates in management, program/strategic marketing and program/finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.