Head Of Solutions Delivery
Edinburgh, Scotland, Gb
Joined NatWest Group, formerly known as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) as Head of Solutions to establish and strengthen the innovation delivery, research and development capabilities of the bank aligned with bank’s strategy.Strong collaborator internally and member of bankwide Design Authority, Innovation Working Groups, and multiple COEs. Active externally, presenting in major industry events and participating in networking events.Generated support for early-stage R&D investments, establishment of an Innovation Fund, and formation of an executive Innovation Forum. Developed a streamlined Innovation Framework for faster paced proof-of-concepts, prototypes and pilots changing Ways of Working and driving cultural change.Established Bluebank, a bank-wide resource to safely collaborate, experiment, and explore both in the cloud and physically in our premises. Created an air-gapped multi-cloud sandbox environment for testing new, emerging technologies and demonstrating capabilities in collaboration with franchises and functions. Complimented our physical innovation spaces with state-of-the-art technology.Below are highlights of the key initiatives that I delivered in the bank:• Fostered minority investments into multiple startup companies, including 1Qbit, Motive Partners, R3, and Vizolution• Established multiple joint-ventures, including Carbonplace (9 banks), NIFT (Prehype), Pollinate (3 banks), and Rocketspace (startup accelerator).• Partnered with startups on several initiatives, including Behavioural Biometrics (BioCatch), DevSecOps (LetsBloom), eSME Loans (EZBob), Ethics (Truera), HQLA (Finteum), Pricing (Earnix), SCS (TechPassport), Video banking (TokBox & Zoom), Wealth (EvolutionAI)• Engaged big tech on multiple solutions, AI-based chatbots and Digital Bond Issuance (IBM), Agent Based Modelling and Generative AI (Microsoft), Call Centre (AWS), AI Assist (Google), Workplace (Meta)