CURRENT PROJECTS

Finserv Experts is working with Deutsche Telekom’s Blockchain Solution Center to lead the design of its new portfolio of blockchain product and service offerings.

Finserv Experts is leading the design and delivery of a microinsurance solution for natural disasters in Indonesia.

PREVIOUS PROJECTS

At Lloyd’s of London, Areiel served as the delivery leader and overall solution architect for the successfully delivered DLT-enabled trade settlement and claims agreement prototype. programme. Much of Lloyd’s post-settlement processing remains as paper based as it was when Lloyd’s became the world’s leading insurance market in the early 1700’s. This prototype enabled the London Market Target Operating Model programme envision a solution in which the transaction accounting, claims agreement, net settlement, and reporting functions are digitized and automated via a transparent, immutable, blockchain-based ledger.

The ICAEW is the main professional body for accountants in England and Wales; they have asked Areiel to help chart out the impact that the advent of blockchain is going to have on the audit profession. Many of the current processes followed by auditors may end up being disintermediated, but the fundamental role of audit assurance becomes more necessary than ever in a distributed ledger environment, and Areiel is helping the ICAEW map out how the requried skills and activities that auditors perform will change as a result.

Areiel worked with Bank of America, HSBC, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore to lead the development of a working blockchain prototype for letter of credit origination. This was IBM’s very first commercial consulting engagement for blockchain, and successfully delivered on time.

Areiel advised the central bank of Thailand on the creation of a blockchain working group to give blockchain fintechs in Thailand a competitive advantage by supporting them with clear guidance and proactive regulatory engagement.

Areiel worked with Commercial Bank of Africa to lead the development of a machine learning based credit scoring solution for loans issued over mPesa, Kenya’s world leading mobile payments solution. Over 40% of Kenya’s GDP flows through mPesa, and more than half if its users have no bank accounts, let alone a financial history which could be used as the basis for traditional credit scoring algorithms. Areiel led a team of developers and data scientists to create a solution which used machine learning to predict the likelihood of default based on the applicant’s payment history and other data about the loan. The pilot of this solution reduced CBA’s non-performing loans by over 26%.

Areiel worked with the MITRE corporation to draft a detailed set of interoperability requirements and standards for a large outsourcing contract.

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)

Delivery Leader

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

Emerging technologies only change the world when they enable business models that could not have existed before

Finserv Experts is a consultancy that provides advisory, design, and delivery services to make those new business models possible.

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