Charter Global has appointed Dr. Abhinav Somaraju as Chief AI Officer for Orcaworks, with responsibility for guiding its agentic AI strategy from pilot stages through to production.
Dr. Somaraju, who was previously a machine learning strategist at Cisco and a co-founder of Greenlake Medical, will report to Rajesh Indurthi, Chief Information Officer at Orcaworks. In this new role, Dr. Somaraju will oversee the company's approach to evaluation-driven AI deployment, decision tracing, and measurable outcome delivery in enterprise environments.
Murli Reddy, Chief Executive Officer of Charter Global and Orcaworks, emphasised that Dr. Somaraju's addition would enhance Orcaworks' capacity to support robust AI systems. Reddy stated that Dr. Somaraju would bolster the company's expertise in evaluation-driven AI, context engineering, and architectures that align with enterprise governance requirements.
"Abhi brings the rare mix of scientific depth, product pragmatism and hands-on systems engineering we look for in leaders," said Rajesh Indurthi, CIO of Orcaworks. "He has shipped complex AI in regulated environments, contributed core open-source frameworks and built teams that deliver. We're excited for him to help our customers turn AI pilots into measurable business outcomes."
Dr. Somaraju's background spans over two decades in systems engineering and more than eight years delivering production-class AI and machine learning systems across healthcare, security, and IoT sectors. He holds a doctorate in Engineering, with a portfolio of publications in key industry and academic venues.
With his appointment, Dr. Somaraju will be based in Melbourne, Australia. He will work closely with Charter Global's global engineering groups and client delivery teams, reflecting the company's international operational scope.
Reflecting on his new role, Dr. Somaraju highlighted the importance of reliable AI delivery within real-world operational contexts. "I'm thrilled to join Orcaworks at a moment when agentic AI and evaluation-first engineering are moving from concepts to real operational leverage," said Dr. Abhinav Somaraju, Chief AI Officer. "Our focus will be safe, observable and reliable AI systems that integrate with the enterprise stack and prove their value in weeks, not quarters."
The company stated that Dr. Somaraju's experience as both a founding architect and engineering leader would reinforce Orcaworks' goal of building AI solutions prepared for complex enterprise rollouts and global scaling.
Orcaworks provides co-designed digital co-workers, known as "Orcas", tailored to automate workflow tasks within organisations. These agentic solutions are customisable and are intended to integrate with platforms such as HubSpot, Workday, and Microsoft Teams. By automating routine tasks, the Orcas aim to streamline business operations while retaining the organisation's control and enabling staff to concentrate on strategic objectives.
Dr. Somaraju's appointment is intended to strengthen Orcaworks' commitment to enterprise-ready artificial intelligence that can deliver impact at scale and support measurable returns on investment for clients. The role includes setting strategic direction and ensuring that AI implementations are observable, safe, and firmly rooted in measurable, timely success.
