Leadership

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• Managing Director, The Partnerships Advisory
• Instructor, Harvard University
• Committee Member, Mohamed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund, UAE Ministry of Finance

Based in Dubai for over 30 years, Tanvir has established a track record earning trust and delivering value. his leadership has been recognised by The Banker Middle East, Cards International and the Freddie Awards.

He is the Managing Director of The Partnerships Advisory, a team of global banking and finance experts advising on successful strategies across the Middle East and Africa. 

He is the Founding Partner of TanGo Holding, an ADGM (Abu Dhabi Global Market) domiciled, Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) supervised, Real Estate Holding Company.

Tanvir sits on the Decision Committee of Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund, a $ 545 M Government Venture Debt Fund of the UAE Ministry of Finance.

Previously, at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Tanvir launched and built one of the largest Payments and FinTech businesses in the region with $ 3 B in annual volumes, and over $ 600 M in peak unsecured lending. At ADIB he also managed and grew the Mortgage portfolio to $ 2 B in Real Estate secured lending book. 

Earlier he launched the Advisory division at The International Investor (TII) and built media assets at Motivate Media Group.

Tanvir is blessed to be an Instructor and an Alumni of Harvard University (USA), a qualified Chartered Marketer (UK), holds a Business degree from Bombay University (India), and graduated high school from Dubai (UAE).

Partner, Banking and Digital Transformation

Akshaya Gaur has over 39 years of experience in the Banking industry and has a track record of leadership in Banking Technology with a strong customer, business and delivery focus. He possesses in-depth expertise in a wide spectrum of traditional and emerging technologies in the Banking sector. Akshaya has a proven track record of delivering major transformation programs in international environments across the UK, Singapore, UAE, Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe and India. 

• The Partnerships – Drives Digital Transformation initiatives for Financial Services and other clients
• Founder of Aayan, a consulting and advisory company in the FinTech, Digital Transformation, Payments and Banking Technology space. 
• Mashreq Bank - Successfully delivered Mashreq Bank’s strategic agenda of creating a culture of innovation with a focus on Digital Transformation – mobility, cloud, big data, robotic process automation and straight-through processing. Chief Information Officer, Mashreq Bank, UAE and Chief Executive Officer of the subsidiary, Mindscape IT. A member of Mashreq Bank’s Executive Leadership Forum and a member of the Board of Directors of Mashreq Global Services, Mashreq’s fully-owned subsidiary in Bangalore, India.
• Standard Chartered Bank - Various leadership positions for 23 years. Executive Vice-President responsible for the management of the entire Technology function for Standard Chartered Global Business Services (SCB’s fully-owned subsidiary) leading a Management Team of senior Technology executives and 3000 staff to deliver banking technology solutions and services to Standard Chartered
• Wipro, India and Middle East – Advised the company in transforming their Banking practice to adopt and provide Digital Transformation services to their clients
• CRDB Bank Tanzania and Burundi - Digital Transformation offsite workshop for the Board 
• Canadian Credit Unions CXO Delegation – Advisory on the ‘Indian Digital and Payments Journey – Banking the unbanked’
• Conference speaker – Digital Transformation and Disruption in Banking – At many international events including UAE, Hanoi, Singapore, Malaysia and India
• FixNix.co – a Medici Global Top 21 RegTech company delivering Governance, Risk and Compliance solutions
• SDTech.io – an Artificial Intelligence company registered and operating out of India with an international client base
• iCubeConsortium.com – Chief Technology Officer for an international HRTech company based out of Singapore 
• 1Crowd – Mentor and Screening Committee Member. 1Crowd is a unique equity crowdfunding platform focused on connecting investors with a host of extremely promising Indian start-ups and early-stage ventures, with an array of capital solutions and co-investment commitments.
• CR2 – An Irish retail banking omnichannel solutions company - Strategic outsourcing advisor and culture-change execution for CR2’s Indian subsidiary

Akshaya is an alumnus of IIT Delhi, IIM Calcutta, INSEAD and Oxford University. He is an Executive Coach and received his Certification of Advanced Certified Personal and Executive Coaching from the College of Executive Coaching, CA, USA.

Partner, Turkey & CIS

 Yılmaz Sonışık advices on (new) digital business development and strategy development, digital (marketing) growth and global extension, innovative business solutions with edge cutting technology implementation, digital transformation (strategy & culture & technology), business agility and collaboration for both start-ups and corporate companies.
 

Aman Ladia is a 15-year-old inventor and entrepreneur based in Bombay, India. Aman has a keen interest in blockchain and cybersecurity having also won international-level cyber and mathematics competitions. 

Aman's catalogue of products includes an AI-enabled power-saving home automation device and a wearable safety jacket for bikers, both of which have received awards from the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, Government of India. Aman, as a solo competitor at age 14 beat out larger, better funded and more experienced teams. 

He writes regularly on popular Blockchain blogs and has delivered talks at various international conferences as a part of his effort to expand the technology to the common man.

Aman has dived into cryptography - learning vulnerability analysis by exploiting misconfigured access privileges on network nodes at his school. Since then, he has worked with other institutes, attempting to strengthen their internal systems.

As a technical architect at Blockchain Fortress, a Canadian-based firm, Aman has been working toward constructing new applications for the technology, in vastly different fields: from finance to real estate to education. He views the technology as a bridge between corporations and governments. In addition to his hands-on experience with blockchain, he is also working with the R&D Department of Emirates NBD Bank to develop new Blockchain technologies. 

Aman balances his tech career and interests while also attending the Dhirubhai Ambani International School in Mumbai, where he has held a top position in academics all through. He has been conferred with the prestigious Homi Bhabha Young Scientist Award twice, in addition to having won over 35 zonal, national and international Olympiads and scholarships.

Lynnette’s core professional passions are technology and real estate. She has spent her career in the technology sector for over 20 years and has specialised in the PropTech industry for the last 11 years due to her passion and experience in the real estate industry in the U.S. and Dubai. 

Lynnette holds multiple accreditations from the US-based National Association of Realtors (NAR). She currently is the Director of Research and Data for the Propertyfinder Group providing strategic direction on real estate data intelligence in the UAE. Previously, Lynnette was instrumental in building the tech stack, business plans and regulatory outreach for Property Monitor amongst other real estate digitalisation efforts in Dubai.

Lynnette applies her unique blend of technology and real estate experience to optimise business performance through data and tech-driven strategies. Her highly developed understanding of real estate consumer behaviour is sought by leading Banks, Developers, Institutional Investors, Consultants and Governments.

Successful track record of managing a portfolio of Mid to large corporate relationships of diversified industries within the UAE.

Extensive knowledge of all aspects of Corporate Banking in terms of product knowledge, budgeting, bank’s credit policy, Legal, documentation and operating systems.

Extensive experience in Wholesale Credit Administration including Central Bank Reporting and internal MIS.

Over the years coached and guided junior colleagues and developed their work-related areas.

Sanjay Sethi is an international executive with over 20 years of experience primarily in financial services, payments, loyalty and real estate. He has a bias for action, moves fast and gets things done. He has an excellent track record with blue-chip companies including American Express, MasterCard (managing the Citibank relationship), Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, a private equity portfolio company and a real estate firm. Sanjay brings an entrepreneurial flair having started two businesses. 

Recently, Sanjay has been a trusted advisor to senior executives looking for independent analysis on acquisitions, private equity investments, expansion growth, product launches, market entry and other strategic initiatives. Sectors include FinTech, Banking, E-Commerce, Real Estate, Health Care, Heavy Industry, Manufacturing and Food Service.

Sanjay has lived in London, Dubai, outside Tokyo and Paris, Chicago, Nairobi, Toronto and Montreal, worked across 28+ markets in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and North America and speaks 3 languages. 

Sanjay holds an MBA from London Business School where he was a Scholarship recipient and is a Fellow of the International Academy of Retail Bankers. He also studied at JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management, ESC Rouen (a Grande Ecole) and Concordia University.