Yogesh Gupta loves his job — and his tech budget

CTO Yogesh Gupta thinks of Computer Associates as a giant toy chest: “We have so many building blocks of technology to build from,” he says. But there’s nothing playful about Gupta’s work.

A conversation with the chief security officer of the Federal Aviation Administration who wondered how to prioritize security alerts from multiple products, inspired Gupta to create — in less than a year — software that filters out duplicative and irrelevant alerts.

And there are more products to come. Under Gupta’s direction, Computer Associates has focused on internal R&D, spending $650 million annually during the past three years. Whereas most companies spend 10 percent of revenues on R&D, CA spends 24 percent. “When you have that kind of commitment,” Gupta says, “how can you not love your job?”