Finserv Experts is an association of seasoned business transformation professionals.
Areiel Wolanow (武啸天)
Managing Director
Areiel is the managing director of Finserv Experts. He is an experienced business leader with over 25 years of experience in business transformation solutioning, sales, and execution. He served as one of IBM’s key thought leaders in blockchain, machine learning, and financial inclusion. Areiel has deep experience leading large, globally distributed teams; he has led programs of over 100 people through the full delivery life cycle, and has managed budgets in the tens of millions of dollars.
In addition to his delivery experience, Areiel also serves as a senior advisor on blockchain, machine learning, and technology adoption. He has addressed the G20 on financial inclusion, is currently an advisor to UK Parliament on blockchain, and has worked with central banks and financial regulators around the world.
Subject matter expertise
Areiel has delivered working solutions in the following solution domains
- Blockchain
- Machine Learning
- Financial Inclusion
- Agile/DevOps Adoption
- Business intelligence/analytics
- CRM
Industry expertise
Areiel’s core expertise lies in the banking and insurance industries. He also has real-world delivery experience in
- Trade finance
- Telecommunications
- Public sector
International experience
Areiel is a US citizen, a UK permanent resident, and has delivered projects in over 40 countries around the globe. In addition to the US and UK, Areiel has over one year delivery experience in each of the following countries
- China
- India
- Singapore
- Kenya
- Mexico
- Denmark
- Poland
Visit Areiel’s LinkedIn profile here
Emma McClarkin, MEP (麦馨洁)
Digital Transformation Ambassador
Emma is Member of European Parliament for the East Midlands constituency in the United Kingdom. She has held this position since 2009 and has risen through the ranks in Brussels. Emma has extensive experience in both digital, technology and international trade owing to her prolific role on the International Trade Committee (INTA) and Internal Market Committee (IMCO). After joining INTA in early 2012, Emma was soon appointed as the ECR Group Coordinator leading on all EU Trade Negotiations. Emma has also been a Member if the WTO Steering Committee And has spoken in Geneva on Trade and at the MC11 in Buenos Aires on e-commerce and the Internationalisation of SMEs.
In this role, Emma has worked extensively to deliver free trade agreements and push an open and transparent trade agenda in the EU, this includes the EU-US trade deal, the Trade in Services Agreement and the EU-China Investment Agreement.
Emma works extensively on policy relating to emerging technologies and the Digital Single Market. As part of her work on INTA, she was the first MEP to publish an Own Initiative report that considers the use of blockchain in a specific policy area. Moreover, Emma has worked on cybersecurity, Copyright in the Digital Single Market and most recently the EU regulation to prevent the dissemination of terrorist content online.
As part of her expertise in blockchain policymaking, Emma has spoken at and worked with several organisations and industry stakeholders including the European Centre for International Political Economy, Allied for Startups and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Blockchain in the House of Commons.
Subject matter expertise
Emma has developed policy and legislation in the following subject areas:
- Blockchain
- Digital Trade
- Copyright
- Digital Single Market
- Audiovisual media services
International experience
Emma was born and raised in the UK but has lived in Brussels for most of the past decade. She has led delegations of parliamentarians and businesses and spoken at conferencesaround the world. Here are some of the countries:
- United States
- Hong Kong
- India
- Singapore
- United Kingdom
- Australia
- Spain
- United Arab Emirates
- Switzerland
- Argentina
Visit Emma’s LinkedIn profile here
Kefirah Kang (康誠佳)
Director of Professional Services
Kefirah currently oversees a portfolio of 10+ projects in China and across Southeastern Asia. She is responsible for account engagement and delivery assurance, identifying opportunities for digital transformation, shaping solutions, and advising agile practices on how to plan their deliveries. She has a proven track record of successfully delivering large, geographically distributed projects across the globe. Kefirah is a recognized thought leader in the China for strategic planning and go-to-market design for technology start-ups.
Subject matter expertise
Kefirah has delivered working solutions in the following solution domains
- Data Intelligence Empowerment
- Digital Platform Strategy
- Digital Product Evolution Strategy
- Agile/DevOps Adoption
- Lean Innovation
International experience
Kefirah has successfully delivered projects in:
- Mainland China
- Hong Kong
- Singapore
- Indonesia
- India
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Brazil
Visit Kefirah’s LinkedIn profile here
Ewan Puckle Hobbs (何淵明)
Enterprise Business Architect
Ewan Puckle Hobbs has a long history in consultancy, primarily in banking and insurance. He is especially interested in the way structure and culture need to change with capability maturity. Diagnosis is a specialisation and he has particular skill in understanding inconsistencies between the way an organisation wants to work and the way it actually works. He has in depth experience in Operating Model design – and relishes the challenge of enabling organisational habits to change as new ideas and new technologies are introduced.
Customers and their needs and expectations are a passion. Finding ways to support and enable differentiating customer propositions is an adventure; keeping it grounded and practical is an essential goal. His experience with institutions and customer behaviour covers almost every continent – so he is pretty good at judging what is really unique to the local market and what is just bad practice.
Success is very much dependent on knowing what to measure – and how to integrate measurement consistently to drive behaviour. Ewan has experience with very successful – and pretty unsuccessful – institutions, supported by a passion for real time cost allocation and profit based measurement. None of these ideas are new but his joy comes from leveraging new technologies, like distributed ledger, to create practical enablers for intractable problems.
Subject Matter Expertise
Ewan has deep, practical consultancy experience in the following areas:
- Operating model design and implementation, including coaching senior executives in the adoption of their new roles
- Capability modelling and service modularisation to drive step change improvement in customer service as well as massive cost reduction
- Customer centric business, creating business models that actually align stakeholder goals to deliver what customers really value
- Profit based measurement, creating a measuring interlocking P&Ls to drive and deliver the right outcomes in every area of the business
- Governance, Risk and Compliance, driving the digitisation of these key functions – and the behavioural and cultural changes needed to allow this to happen
Industry and Business Expertise
In his early career, Ewan worked as a Financial Advisor, selling insurance, investment and banking products to customers at a time when behaviour in the industry was not always easy to defend. This real life experience has been essential in the development of his business modelling and diagnostic skills. As well as his core core expertise in banking and financial services, Ewan has delivery experience in:
- Business transformation: successfully leading both successful and unsuccessful programmes both of which have been critical to his delivery skills
- Business / IT relationship: helping to define this critical interface for both traditional and agile organisations in both Insurance and Banking
- Capability modelling and Operating Model design and implementation
International Experience
Ewan was born and brought up in the UK but also holds Irish and Australian citizenships. As well as UK he has lived in Singapore and Germany, visited more than 50 countries, and delivered projects in five continents. As well as the countries he has lived in, Ewan has extensive experience in South East Asia and has over a year of delivery experience in each of the following:
- Mexico
- Turkey
- The Gulf Counties, notably Saudi Arabia
- The Nordics (Sweden & Denmark)
- Central Europe (Netherlands, Hungary, Spain & France)
- Africa (primarily Kenya & South Africa)
Visit Ewan’s LinkedIn profile here
