Senior IT Management Consulting Professional specialising in providing Innovative Business and Technology Solutions to the Banking and Financial Services Industry.
Across 23+ years, was associated with Capgemini (Vice President and Global Head of Payments), Oracle (Global Head of Payments), and Unisys (Banking Specialist in AEME).
I am an alumnus of the MIT Sloan Management School and Narsee Monjee College. I am also, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and possess a Certification of Proficiency as an Independent Director.
Experienced in Business Leadership, Financial Services IT Products and Consulting Services Strategy, Mergers and Acquisition Strategies, Transformation Programs, Program Management of Large Global Systems Integration Projects.
Serviced large banking organisations across the different regions of the world covering North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.
These banks included global financial institutions such as Citibank, Barclays, HSBC, Bank of Ireland, Westpac, Standard Chartered, etc.
Domain experiences in the areas of Banking and Finance, particularly, Payments / Transaction Banking, Cards, Retail Banking Solutions / Channel Integration, and Wealth Management.
Key Work Experiences
VP and Head of Global Payments Practice at Capgemini – 2009-2013
- Responsible for the Global P&L of the Payments Business which focused on developing consulting and third-party product implementation and integration solutions and services in payments and transaction banking domain.
- Created growth-oriented business strategy, forging partnerships and alliances, and acquisition strategies. Successfully expanding the business beyond European geographies with accounts like Standard Chartered Bank and ING.
- Earlier, operating under the aegis of Paarshad Consulting, executed an assignment for the creation of a unified Global Payments Services Business Strategy at Capgemini across different operating units of the Financial Services Business. This strategy has a special focus on creation of a Global Payments Offshore Delivery capability out of India.
Head of Payments Practice and Cards Product Strategy at Oracle Financial Services (2006-2009)
- Responsible for a successful Payments Products and Services business strategy for the set-up of a payments business practice which focused on developing consulting and third-party product implementation and integration delivery models by conceptualizing new solutions.
- The group was responsible for providing thought leadership, identification and managing global partners and alliances, and creation of training programs.
- Managing a large revenue generating practice of US$ 50+ million in the areas of Enterprise Payments (Funds Transfer, Payment Messaging, and other Payment solutions e.g. SEPA), Cards, SWIFTNet and Remittance Products.
- The business expanded with Payments Consolidation project engagements at leading banks viz. Barclays (UK FPS, SEPA, etc.), Bank of Ireland (Payments Consulting and Funds Transfer Project), Westpac (Funds Transfer Project), Standard Bank (SWIFT Services) and Allied Irish Bank (SEPA).
- Funds Transfer Line of Business – Created a successful strategy of establishing a 3rd party Professional Services Practice (Fundtech payments product implementation and integration) for the Funds Transfer Line of business. This group was staffed with a large team of 300+ professionals. Working with global sales teams, this business successfully to US$ 20+ million in annual revenues by adding clients such as Barclays, Westpac and Bank of Ireland.
Program Manager for Citibank’s Global Funds Transfer Project at Oracle Financial Services (2003-2006)
- Citibank’s Global Funds Transfer application is a strategic system, processing Citigroup’s Global Corporate and Investment Bank Cross Border and Domestic Payments in Europe, Asia and North America.
- The Fundtech payments system is a consolidated payments utility / engine, replacing multiple legacy funds transfer applications, thus providing business processing and operational consistency and increased automation for the regional operations and processing centres.
- This multi-year Global Systems Integration Program with annual revenues exceeding US$ 6 million, entailed complex management challenges pertaining to on-site and offshore implementation model involving an integrated product solution from multiple global vendors. This included creation of a strategic approach for global implementation roadmap and ensuring consistent and synchronised deliveries across multiple global and regional teams.
Retail Banking Solutions Specialist at Unisys (1998-2003)
- As a Retail Banking solutions specialist responsible for the AEME regional product strategy, managed the creation of a customised version of the Unisys Retail Delivery solution called Financial Transaction Manager.
- Devised a strategy for the creation of an Integrated Retail Banking Solution between the Retail Delivery and the Retail Core Banking Solutions.
- Business Development of the Unisys Retail Delivery Banking Program in the AEME region. Working with regional distributors and partners, carried out activities for client demonstrations and preparation of proposals and financials to include all project services; and Contract Statement of Work reflecting the project deliverables and implementation approach that included full range of services so as to minimise project overruns and risk aversion.
- Branch Automation Consulting Assignment – Led a consulting team in the definition of a Solution Strategy and Business Requirements Definition for Al Bank Al Saudi Al Fransi’s (subsidiary of Credit Agricole) replacement of existing IBM 4700 Branch System, requiring automation of key Branch / Back-Office operations.
- Branch Automation Project – Project Manager at Oman International Bank (OIB) to rollout a customised Unisys Branch Automation solution across 80+ branches of the bank. Was involved in requirements definition, design and development of the new Retail Delivery Branch Automation system. Established a distributed database TCP/IP connectivity of Oracle Transparent Gateway for SQL on IBM AS/400 and Oracle 7 database on a Unisys UNIX Server: the first in the country.
Project Manager for Oman International Bank’s Branch Automation Program at Unisys (1995-1998)
- Oman International Bank is one of the leading commercial banks in the Sultanate of Oman with more than 80 branches. Project managed a team of resources to rollout the customised Unisys Branch Automation solution in all the branches of the bank.
- As a consultant and project leader was also involved in requirements definition, design and development of the new Retail Delivery Branch Automation system, with specific responsibility for the development activities of one team.
- Managing the staging of a branch prior to its live rollout and performance tests for bank’s acceptance, Monitoring and reporting rollout project status to the Unisys and Bank management and Definition, customization and implementation of branch transactions including, Oracle Database installation and administration activities and designing a transaction update and recovery framework
- Established prototype of a distributed database TCP/IP connectivity of Oracle Transparent Gateway for SQL on IBM AS/400 and Oracle 7 database server on a Unisys UNIX Server, the first in the Middle East.
Development Consultant for Muscat Finance Company (Muscat, Oman) Turnkey Hire Purchase Lease Finance Application System Development Project at Unisys (1992-1995)
- Lead developer in a comprehensive turnkey Hire Purchase and Lease Financing Application System development for Muscat Finance Company, encompassing all their business, administrative and accounting activities; consisting of 21 application software modules.
- The system was designed and developed on Oracle RDBMS V6 and related development tools. Subsequently was responsible in leading a team to port the entire application to Oracle 7 and Developer 2000 Tools on Unix SVR4
Earlier Projects (1991-1992)
- Some of the other earlier projects were in the areas of Loan Credit Control and Monitoring, Social Club Accounting, Water Billing and Porting / Connectivity of Oracle applications across a variety of heterogeneous networks.