Hello to the BIAN community around the world! My name is Shanker Ramamurthy and I am the newest member of the BIAN executive board and Global Managing Partner of Banking at IBM. When I was invited to become a member of the BIAN board, it was an opportunity I could never imagine turning down. I am truly honored to join BIAN’s executive board to provide counsel and support their work in helping financial institutions navigate this period of immense opportunity and disruption. Now more so than ever before, BIAN’s open framework, services-oriented architecture, and standards model are critical to the financial services industry.

My career began almost three decades ago and, since then, I have been fortunate to work across six different continents in various consulting roles in the financial services sector. In my current position, I lead the banking consulting practice across IBM’s Consulting, focusing on banks’ digital transformation, core banking, and payments.

One of the reasons I am so genuinely committed to our industry is because of the impact it has on everyone’s lives. Financial inclusion is a topic that is close to my heart because of my background and where I grew up. I feel that financial wellbeing and the ability to access financial services should be accessible to all, no matter where you are in the world. So, I’m committed to helping banks around the globe to increase the availability of banking services and reduce the cost point in doing so.

I am also the President of the IBM Industry Academy, a vibrant and diverse community of IBM’s leaders aiming to shape new solutions that will help our customers thrive. The Academy provides a unique opportunity to work collaboratively with experts from various industries. This gives me a unique perspective and overview of the trends impacting other sectors. It has also shown me the value of collaboration; a principal BIAN is based upon.

As I get settled into my role as a BIAN board member, I am interested in addressing two key areas. First, how do we scale what BIAN does to increase adoption across the industry and our broader ecosystem? Then, how do we accelerate the practical implementation of BIAN models? If you have any ideas, we would love to hear your thoughts!

The winners of tomorrow will be the organizations who have the business strategy to support the technology of the future but also have the technology to support the business strategy. BIAN has a crucial role in enabling banks to do just this.

I look forward to working with you all as we navigate the future of our industry.