Client Leader – Banking and Financial Services
Ibm - United Arab Emirates
Total years of experience :24 years, 4 Months
+ Advise large financial institutions on their Digital Transformation Strategy, Cloud Migration Journey and implementation of Artificial Intelligence initiatives.
+ Most senior architect at IBM MEA with responsibility to support IBM’s business in the Banking and Financial Services Industry by providing business domain and technical expertise.
Some key initiatives as follows
+ Lead architect for implementation of the National Payment Systems Strategy for the Central Bank of a leading country. Led a large team to deliver solution design and financial estimates to revamp the country’s payment services infrastructure including, but not limited to, the following scope.
+ Real-time Gross Settlement (RTGS) payments
+ Participant banks lifecycle management
+ CRM
+ Batch payments
+ Interbank reconciliation
+ Billing
+ Electronic cheques
+ Electronic Direct Debits
+ Citizen portal
+ Addressed payments (payments to phone, ID number) + Security
+ DevOps
+ Cloud-native applications
+ Kubernetes and Red Hat Open Shift
+ IBM Cloud
+ Lead architect for the first Digital Islamic Bank in the UAE. Delivered end-to-end solution including the following domains.
+ New Digital Customer Experience channels on mobile, web and social media
+ Digital customer onboarding
+ All supporting microservices
+ Cloud-native Core Banking System implementation
+ Digital lending and self service
+ Integration with ecosystem partners
+ AI and Advanced Data analytics
+ Cognitive and AI capabilities
+ DevSecOps
+ Cloud deployment and operations (MS Azure)
+ Lead Architect for AI and cognitive banking implementation at a major bank in UAE
+ Chief Architect for the first digital bank being launched in the UAE. Responsible for developing blueprint of the all the IT systems required for this new bank on the principle of ‘Zero Ops’. Created architecture and led ambitious projects in the following domains
+ Retail Internet and Mobile Banking
+ Corporate Internet and Mobile banking
+ Local payments and Central Bank integration
+ Kafka and event-based architecture
+ FX Payments, SWIFT and Blockchain integration
+ Cloud native Core Banking System
+ Personal Finance Management
+ Digital customer onboarding
+ AI-based credit decisioning
+ Retail and corporate Customer Chatbot
+ Debit and Credit Cards issuing, lifecycle management and transaction processing
+ As Head of Enterprise Architecture responsible for establishment, continuous development and budgetary requirements of the Bank’s EA practice.
+ Key stakeholder for the development and implementation of Bank’s Digital Transformation Strategy (budget 400+ million AED) with McKinsey & Co. Leading the implementation of several enterprise-wide initiatives within.
+ Created roadmap to steer towards establishment of data-driven organization. Leading the implementation of Big Data Analytics project (budget 20+ million AED).
+ Leading the development of IT Strategy in partnership with Gartner, as part of the overall Business Strategy.
+ Initiated and led the implementation of Orbus iServer software modules for Enterprise Architecture repository and process automation.
+ Responsible for efficiency and longevity of major IT assets of the Bank. Maintain a complete architecture repository across Business, Application, Data and Technology domains and analyse all new initiatives for compliance and best practices.
+ Responsible for complete architecture of LoBs at the business, application and data layers within the Bank, including Trade Finance, Global Transaction Banking, Payments Hub and Global Financial Markets.
+ Design Lead for the IT Integration Working Group for the NBAD-FGB merger. Created the taxonomy to compare capabilities across both banks and create target architecture of combined bank.
+ Ensure that all initiatives fall in line with corporate strategy, and IT-business alignment. Maximize reuse and minimize CAPEX and OPEX of existing IT assets. Act as single point of contact between sponsors, NBAD executive management, business and IT service providers.
Some key initiatives as follows
+ Design lead for NBAD-FGB merger Day 1 readiness.
+ Technical Lead for real-time cross border payments solution using Blockchain (Ripple) and Unified Payments Interface.
+ Lead architect for design of Electronic Funds Transfer System between NBAD UAE, Oman and Bahrain and respective regional central banks for near-realtime RTGS and ACH processing.
+ Created target architecture for introducing best-in-class Host-to-Host solution as corporate banking channel for Global Transaction Banking (GTB) department.
+ Created current and target architecture for upgrade of Eximbills system for Trade Finance. Performed detailed analysis and proposed IT solution for offering Value Added Trade products (supply chain financing).
+ Part of the architecture team for Payments Hub initiative to create a new and complete payments infrastructure for the Bank.
+ Responsible for integration architecture of the Master Data Management solution for 4 domains, i.e. Customer, Accounts, Products and Reference data.
+ Created the current and target operating model of Global Financial Markets with front, middle and back offices distributed in 13 regions. Created full architecture of Murex system. Architect for cost-saving initiatives with GFM including CVA/DVA calculation and market data feeds consolidation.
+ Data Architecture for implementation of SAS Anti-money laundering and fraud prevention system.
+ Lead Enterprise Architect for the Information Systems Department of one of the largest govt organizations in the U.A.E (confidential customer).
+ Responsible for setup of the ICT Centre of Excellence.
+ Established the Enterprise Architecture practice.
+ Lead architect for several key initiatives
+ Corporate strategy development of the organization and interfacing with the EA for performance management.
+ Acquisition of resources, establishment of partnerships and management of stakeholders for the realization of strategic goals.
Details can not be published due to confidentiality. Please contact candidate for details.
+ Technology Advisor for large financial customers including ING Bank, Fortis Bank, Postbank and Elsevier Reed Publishers.
+ Solution Architect for Business Process Management and Service Oriented Architecture platforms.
08/2010 - 12/2011 Elsevier Reed Publishers
Client IT Architect (CITA)
+ Solution Architect for the OPSBANK-II system. Member of the technical advisory committee.
+ As Lead IT Architect representing IBM, provided sound business advice to the organization for long-term business growth and sustainability.
+ Project budget exceeding 5M EUR and 40+ team members spread over 4 countries.
02/2009 - 08/2010 Fortis Bank, The Netherlands
IT Architect for core billing/payments
+ IT Architect for the customization and implementation for IBM Enterprise Payments Platform (EPP)
+ Member of the Design Authority. Created and reviewed software architecture deliverables for integration of EPP to the existing IT landscape.
12/2007 - 01/2009 ING Bank Insurance, The Netherlands
IT Architect for Business Process Automation
+ Large-scale IT program as a result of the merger of ING Bank and Postbank, two of the largest banks in The Netherlands.
+ Created the Architecture Roadmap for bringing Postbank IT systems under the ING BPM portfolio.
+ Provided technical advice regarding inter-organization integration issues, technology issues and cost/benefit analyses.
Performed research and development of ´context-aware systems´, i.e. systems that use information about the environment of human users to provide customized services. Created service oriented modelling and architecture deliverables for an infrastructure meant for collection, storage, communication and security of context information.
AWARENESS project (http://awareness.freeband.nl)
• Dutch government project with budget of €10.7 million and 50+ members. Industry partners include Lucent Technologies, Ericsson, Yucat and Roessingh R&D.
• Acted as team member for architecture design, development and integration of security and privacy module.
• Technologies: Liberty Alliance, Shibboleth, P3P, EPAL, UML, Java Web Services, Jini
AMIGO project (http://www.hitech-projects.com/euprojects/amigo/)
• European project with budget of €24 million and 80+ members. Industry partners include Philips, Fagor (Spain), France Telecom (France), Fraunhofer IMS (Germany).
• Designed and developed the ‘Quality of Context’ module responsible for enforcing user privacy in location aware systems.
• Technologies: GeoPriv (Geographic Privacy), P3P, EPAL, UML, Java Web Services
+ Biomet is the world’s leading orthopaedics implants and instruments producer.
+ Managed the IT department of the New South Wales distribution office.
+ Set department objectives, ensured IT-business alignment, managed key relationships with vendors and stakeholders.
+ Managed delivery of operations and sales IT systems and consequent change in the organization.
+ Led development of several banking application modules.
Design and development of software modules for a range of international clients.
The IBM IT Architect Master Program consists of a set of 24 courses especially designed for IT Architects in the BeNeLux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) region.
This Masters degree was geared towards IT systems management and design.