Banco Santander has ‘signed’ the hitherto responsible for the Platform Ecosystem of Google Cloud, Aiaz Kazi, as head of Platform, a newly created position from which will lead the open platform of financial services and will contribute to develop the way in which the entity offers products and services to its customers.
Kazi, head of Platform
As announced by Santander, Kazi will work in San Francisco in collaboration with the global technology division of the bank and equipment of the top ten markets in Europe and America and will report to the person in charge of Digital Technology, Lindsey Argalas.
About Kazi’s experience
Before being responsible for the Platform Ecosystem of Google Cloud, Kazi worked a long period in SAP, where he was responsible for the launch and development of SAP HANA. Santander stressed that his appointment brings to the bank “extensive experience in the development of platforms in the cloud, ecosystems of developers and partners and the adoption of platforms for the benefit of customers and technology partners”.
Kazi holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California (Berkeley) and a degree in Computer Science from the University of Bombay (India). Kazi is the latest in a series of hiring managers from Amazon, Google, Facebook, PayPal and Intuit, which complement the entrepreneurial talent with experience in banking from the local markets of Santander, as highlighted by the entity.
The aim is to be all digital
Banco Santander is already transforming the part of the bank that has contact with the client so that all its products and services are available in digital channels, as well as the set of activities to support the business with re-engineering, digitalization and automation of all processes. Given the size of the bank and its broad base of clients and partners, it considers that the next “logical step” is the evolution towards a global open platform.
Argalas has emphasized that investing in people and having the best technology allows the entity to offer “the best services” to its clients. “By hiring the best digital talent and opening the bank to the global technology community, we will achieve our vision of being the best open platform for financial services in the world”, he said.
Whay did Kazi say?
For his part, Kazi assured that he is willing to put his experience into practice to create “an open platform financial services business that fulfills Santander’s vision and constitutes a greater opportunity to shape the future of the financial services sector,” in order to transform the experience of millions of people and companies “.