Determining the most influential people in banking is not just about social media scores. With this in mind, more than 100 global leaders in the financial services industry were asked to identify the top 'influencers' who are leading the charge in an industry being disrupted. The influencers selected are considered thought leaders on critical topics such as mobile and online delivery, digital transformation, innovation, payments, customer experience and and multichannel marketing.
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16. Cherian Abraham
As the mobile commerce and payments lead at Experian Global Consulting, Cherian Abraham serves Experian’s clients in banking, retail, consumer credit and payments on strategy, innovation and emerging business models around mobile. With almost two decades of international tech and strategy consulting experience, Abraham is one of the leading authorities on mobile commerce. Founder of DROP Labs, he writes a blog on mobile payments and commerce strategy focused on banking and retail.
“Commenting on the current state of disruption in FinTech is similar to a critic penning the review, twenty minutes in to a movie … and just as futile.”
17. Claire Cockerton
Claire Cockerton is the founding director and CEO of Innovate Finance, a City of London and Canary Wharf Group backed movement for a more balanced, resilient, and accessible financial services sector. Cockerton is also founder and chairwoman of Entiq, and set the strategy and co-led the implementation of Level39, Europe’s largest technology accelerator dedicated to FinTech, retail and smart cities technologies. Without a doubt, Cockerton is a serial entrepreneur and an influencer in financial services.
“We are heading towards a tipping point in finance and banking where technology will radically change every aspect of the products offered, the businesses that deliver them, and the social and economic opportunities the sector creates for society as a whole.”
18. Nektarios Liolios
Nektarios Liolios is the co-founder and global managing director at Startupbootcamp FinTech, a global network of FinTech accelerators. He has been a managing director at the firm since January 2014. Previously, he served as an Innovation Leader at Innotribe @ SWIFT.
“We are only at the beginning of a truly transformational adventure in financial services and the big changes will not come from the obvious players or the obvious countries.”
19. Sean Park
Sean is founder, chairman and chief investment officer at Anthemis Group. Park combines a powerful mix of entrepreneurial, investment and corporate experience and is widely recognized as a leading independent thinker on the future of financial services. He is the author of The Park Paradigm, and has a proven track record of successfully investing in and advising innovative and disruptive startups. Always on the cutting edge of FinTech innovation, the Anthemis blog is a good read.
“A key success factor will be your ability to exorcise any “not-invented-here” reflexes from your corporate mindset and culture.”
20. Yann Ranchere
Yann Ranchere serves as the finance director at Anthemis Group, where he contributes to the principal investment activities, sourcing and review of potential investments. Ranchere has past experiences with Kurt Salmon and Deloitte, with in-depth knowledge of the trends shaping financial services innovation as well as the startup marketplace. Ranchere has had a financial services blog for more than five years.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – Buckminster Fuller
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Thank you! It’s quite an honor to be included on this list. I have spent time with so many of these people over the past five or six years and can genuinely say these are not only brilliant thinkers and practitioners of the future of financial services, these are incredible human beings. It’s a fantastic time to be working within this space – banking, fintech, payments – we are helping the industry evolve at just the right time. Thank you for helping drive this revolution with us.
The one problem with lists – they are a finite number. Here’s a few of my additions: Dominic Venturo from US Bank, Neff Hudson from USAA, Simon Taylor Barclays, Faisal Khan – Mike Townsend – Brian Roemmele from ‘Around the Coin’, Jason Del Rey from Recode, James Wester from IDC, Erin McCune from Glenbrook, Claire Calmejane Lloyds, Phil Allen Lloyds, and a heck of a lot more out there.
Great additions Sam. You will notice that we did include Neff on the list because of special mentions of him and Christophe Langlois by the panel. In addition, every one of the people you mention received votes in the process.
Interestingly, 60% of the ballots included 3+ of the recognized influencers and 80%+ of the ballots had at least 2 leaders that ended up on the #FinServ25 list. With over 80 people receiving votes, there was a natural break in number of votes at #5, #10 and #25. Not going into the process knowing how many we would include, the tally actually set the thresholds for inclusion.
I agree that all of the people you mention should be followed. They are all making a dramatic impact on the future of banking.
I think deserving of being in the list, if not in the top ten, is Jeffry Pilcher (the creator of this site). And I wouldn’t have thought it self-aggrandizing if his name had appeared here in any way. It would make perfect sense considering the daily contributions from this site we all enjoy. Couple that along with the Forum conference that is now gaining wide notoriety and it would put him squarely near the top of the list. This is just my opinion, but I am sure it is shared by many others.