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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21. Tom Groenfeldt
Tom Groenfeldt is Tom Groenfeldt is a freelance reporter who focuses largely on finance and technology including trading, risk, back office systems, big data, analytics, retail banking, international banking and e-commerce. His work appears in several publications, including Forbes.com in the U.S. and Banking Technology in London.
“Is it just my imagination or is the pace of change in financial technology speeding up?”
22. Duena Blomstrom
Duena Blomstrom is an independent digital banking consultant, FinTech specialist, entrepreneur and a mentor for Startupbootcamp and Techstars. Previously, Blomstrom was the head of sales and marketing for Meniga with a commitment to the customer experience philosophy of ’emotional banking.’ Blomstrom is very active in social media, with Next Bank and curates her own digital banking blog.
“If we want FinTech to reach the potential we all got excited about, we owe it to the industry to crusade for replacing consultancy-speak with real talk and for forcing bankers to remember they are consumers too and have strong feelings about their money.”
23. Peter Vander Auwera
Peter Vander Auwera is the co-founder of Innotribe: SWIFT‘s innovation initiative. He is the main architect and content creator of Innotribe at Sibos and a TEDx speaker. Vander Auwera also curates a very active blog that covers his perspectives on financial innovation, technology and corporate values.
“Get out of the innovation sandbox.”
24. Mike Dudas
Mike Dudas is the co-founder and chief revenue office of Button, a firm that helps mobile app developers and marketers create better user experiences. Before Button, Dudas was the head of Mobile BD for Braintree/Venmo, helping grow the company to $12 bil in overall payments volume and $4 bil in mobile payments volume annually.
“The unimaginably rapid growth of mobile commerce has relegated discussion of mobile wallets and payments to a sideshow.”
25. William Sullivan
With over 15 years of strategy and transformation consulting experience within the U.S., Europe, and Asia, Bill Sullivan is the global head of Capgemini’s Financial Services Market Intelligence Group. Sullivan has worked extensively in the financial services industry, with a focus on wealth management, retail banking and insurance. He is a frequent industry speaker, connects through social media and leads the development of the World Retail Banking Report and World Wealth Report.
“Change in the financial services industry is accelerating and banks need strong leadership committed to digitize the entire organization, simplify systems/processes to become more agile, and better leverage insights and data to deliver customized personal experience to an increasingly demanding client base.”
Also Deserving Mention
While not in the top 25, the following individuals are also active in social media, appear at many industry events as thought leaders and were considered worthy of special consideration by the Financial Brand Crowdsourcing Panel.
Tom Noyes
Tom is currently CEO of Commerce Signals. Noyes has over 20 years experience in banking, payments, venture finance, eCommerce, mobile and product innovation. He has worked with leading banks, mobile operators, payment networks, and regulators globally to bring innovation to consumers. Tom provides unique perspective based upon his global experience as a senior executive with Starpoint LLP, Citibank, Oracle, GartnerGroup as well as start-ups. His very well thought out perspectives are often published on his personal blog.
Neff Hudson
As vice president for emerging channels and business leader for USAA’s award-winning mobile and tablet banking implementations, Neff Hudson oversees innovation and strategy development for emerging channels, including voice, video, social commerce and emerging payments. He is a highly sought after speaker and alternative channel practitioner.
Christophe Langlois
Christophe Langlois is the social media senior managing consultant for IBM, with a key focus on the European financial services industry. Known for his very insightful Visible Banking blog and his involvement in dozens of trade association events, Langlois is one of the foremost authorities on social media in the banking industry.
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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.