In this episode of "Don't Break the Bank," Joe Baguley, Vice President and CTO EMEA at VMware, discusses digital transformation, security and compliance, and the evolving role of CTOs. Baguley emphasizes that digital transformation is not just about technology, but also about people and processes, and that organizations must integrate security and compliance into their plans from the outset to avoid costly and damaging security breaches in the future. He also discusses the evolving role of CTOs, which now require a different skillset and mindset, including a deep understanding of business strategy and the ability to communicate effectively with non-technical stakeholders. Baguley concludes with advice to focus on building relationships and collaborating with others, as success in the technology industry often happens at the intersection of different disciplines and perspectives.

Spencer Kimball, co-founder and CEO of Cockroach Labs, discusses building a next-generation distributed database that can efficiently use commodity hardware found in the cloud and scale rapidly. He emphasizes the importance of distributed databases for businesses operating across multiple regions with diverse databases to maintain continuity and protect information. Kimball also talks about the importance of consistent replication and how CockroachDB can help push the envelope for multi-region operations. He advises starting off at a company where there's a lot to learn.

In this episode, Claire-Louise McSherry, Managing Director at Russell Reynolds Associates, discusses the changes in recruitment and retention in the current work landscape. She explains how technology, culture, sustainability, and social impact have affected these changes, and emphasizes the need for diverse leadership teams and succession pipelines. Three takeaways include the demand for technology skills, the importance of having tech-savvy leaders, and the need to straddle legacy operations with new transformations. McSherry advises to build relationships and network to create opportunities, and highlights her experience in helping financial services companies find technology leaders.

The episode features Kevin McLoughlin, partner and co-founder at MTech Capital. McLoughlin discusses the importance of digital transformation in the insurance industry and how AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and cloud computing can be game changers. He believes that AI will transform the insurance industry, particularly in underwriting. He also talks about the similarities between the evolution of fintech and insurtech, and how insurance companies can leverage technology for digitalization. McLoughlin's best career advice is to pick a niche and go deep in it to make oneself invaluable to an employer. MTech Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in technology companies operating in the insurance industry.

In this podcast episode, Zia Yusuf, Senior Vice President, Strategic Ecosystem & Industry Solutions at VMware, discusses his outlook on economic development, emerging markets, and the use of technology to benefit and enhance business as a competitive capability. He also provides thoughts on how companies and customers should operate in a changing world affected by enhanced digital transformation, and how startups and large incumbent companies approach the adoption of new technologies. Yusuf also talks about how AI and ML are game-changing technologies that will have a big impact on financial services. Additionally, he emphasizes the need for companies to have a robust ecosystem strategy and to take advantage of SaaS technology to iterate faster and cheaper than before.

Ray O'Brien, COO at Quantexa, spoke about the "third industrial revolution," driven by cloud-based machine learning. Ray explained how this technology provides unlimited capacity to explore innovation, trials, and different projects that were not affordable in the past. He also discussed the importance of learning both technology and business sides to be the go-to person between them. Ray predicts that cloud providers will be regulated like utilities as the cloud becomes more integrated with AI and ML. His career advice is to gain a global view by experiencing different cultures, which can provide a lot of value in one's career. Ray is an international business leader, board member, independent director, and advisor with expertise in Data, Analytics, Technology, Risk and Finance.

Bio:

Ray O'Brien

Chief Operation Officer at Quantexa

Ray is Chief Operation Officer at Quantexa. He is known to inspire business growth through innovative thinking, strategy and a global perspective. Ray is an international business leader, board member, independent director, and advisor with a unique mix of expertise in Data, Analytics, Technology, Risk and Finance. Ray is a proven influencer who makes an impactful difference operating with Boards and C-Level decision makers.

Ray graduated from University College Dublin in 1989 with a degree in mathematics and computer science. He joined Kleinwort Benson as an equities trading systems developer and in 1991 moved to Nomura, within futures and options trading. Two years later, he joined risk at Banque Paribas, before moving to the risk area at Deutsche Bank in 1997.

In 2001 Ray left Deutsche Bank to form a risk management consultancy based in London and Germany that included among its customers: Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and HSBC.

In 2004 Ray joined HSBC as a member of the executive committee for HTS Global Banking & Markets (HTS GB&M). Ray has managed a number of business areas within HTS GB&M, including Global Transaction Banking, Global Banking, Operations, Risk and Finance software and change delivery. Ray moved to the Global Risk function in 2012 and became the Global Risk COO and Global Head of Risk Analytics. In June 2021 Ray left HSBC and started the life of a Pluralist.

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EPISODE SUMMARY

Hanna Helin is the Global Head of Technology Innovation at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). In this role she leads LSEG’s Technology Innovation across their global Technology organization. Hanna has worked in a variety of technology and business leadership positions and is experienced in developing, leading and executing large technology and data initiatives. Hanna chatted with us about what is happening in the market around emerging technology. She explains how she is engaged in the global ecosystem through understanding cutting edge technologies, collaborating with venture capital to understand investment approach and focus areas, and engaging organizations in academic research.

EPISODE NOTES

3 Takeaways:

Be open minded in your work and development. This includes everything from how you work, where you work, and what you work on. Consider taking risks and exploring new experiences, while also taking advantage of utilizing new tools and technologies to aid your work.

Leverage your expertise in different ways while also gaining exposure to different things. Use what you know to help propel you forward, build upon the knowledge you already have and expand it into other areas. Using your knowledge and skills in new and different areas could go a long way to benefit your career.

Allow for automation. Seek out new opportunities where you can utilize technology to do some of the work for you. Innovative and emerging technologies can help solve industry challenges related to data management and analysis.

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Key Quotes:

“When we looked at challenges for AI and machine learning, I think we still saw that there is an overall discussion about how do you actually connect the data, manage the data, and really also get access to the right kind of data to then add analytics on top of that.”

“I think it is very important to make sure that whenever you create any kind of model, whether it's with or without AI, it should be done in a proper way. And, keeping the ethical aspect and diverse aspects in the core of it.”

“I think what public cloud has been able to do is really to create this whole new ecosystem of different startup companies and new capabilities for the market.”

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Best Career Advice:

Understand yourself, your business, and your customer. Open up your sights to new opportunities and technologies to help you achieve the highest level of knowledge, efficiency, and success. In doing that, also continue to use the expertise you have gained throughout the years and build upon that as you are exposed to different things.

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Bio:

Hanna Helin

Global Head of Technology Innovation, CTO Office at London Stock Exchange Group

Hanna Helin has worked in a variety of technology and business leadership positions. She is experienced in developing, leading and executing large technology and data initiatives. In her current role as a Global Head of Technology Innovation, Hanna is leading LSEG’s Technology Innovation across their global Technology organization including 13,000 people. She has a keen interest in innovation, new technologies and the FinTech industry. Hanna has two Master’s degrees from ESCP Europe and University of Vaasa. She has lived in six different countries in Europe and Asia and is now based in New York City.

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For more information:

https://www.lseg.com/

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahelin/

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About the Hosts

Matthew O'Neill is a husband, dad, geek and Industry Managing Director, Advanced Technology Group in the Office of the CTO at VMware.

You can find Matthew on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Brian Hayes is an audiophile, dad, builder of sheds, maker of mirth, world traveler and EMEA Financial Services Industry Lead at VMware.

You can find Brian on LinkedIn.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Joel Neeb is the VP of Execution and Transformation at the office of the CEO at VMWare. We caught up with Joel recently and talked about what the financial industry can learn from tech companies and more specifically about revolutionary transformation. Why you should sell business outcomes rather than the product that gets you there, and how in just a few years time, the most successful organizations will be the ones whose teams are aligned culturally and operationally around customer success.

EPISODE NOTES

3 Takeaways:

The hardest (and most important thing) your company can do is invest in cultural and operational transformation.

Don’t sell your technology, sell business outcomes empowered by the right technology.

The most successful companies we read about in five years will be the ones that best communicate a common vision, have the strategy to pursue that vision, and whose teams are aligned behind the scenes.

Key Quotes:

“Evolutionary change is iterative. It's making things a little bit better within the current paradigm. This is revolutionary change. We need to have constructive disruption.” - Joel

“I don't believe whatsoever in innate talent, I believe a hundred percent in our ability to invest in ourselves, invest in our teams, and develop what we need to be successful.” - Joel

“It's less about building better technology and this endless rat race against finding a new feature or something that's going to improve the technology or the product. And it's more about how does everything integrate and come together? How do I work cross-functionally across my organization, across the ecosystem to deliver outcomes?” - Joel

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Links

Joel Neeb LinkedIn

Joel Neeb Twitter

Joel Neeb Instagram

Joel Neeb Website

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About the Hosts

Matthew O'Neill is a husband, dad, geek and Industry Managing Director, Advanced Technology Group in the Office of the CTO at VMware.

You can find Matthew on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Brian Hayes is an audiophile, dad, builder of sheds, maker of mirth, world traveller and EMEA Financial Services Industry Lead at VMware.

You can find Brian on LinkedIn.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Don't Break the Bank, we speak with Spiros Margaris. Spiros is a venture capitalist at Margaris Ventures, a futurist, keynote speaker, and board member. He’s a senior advisor to and investor in several companies in the fintech, insurtech, cybersecurity, health care, and AI sectors. Spiros chatted with us about why embedded finance excites him, the future of banking, why both crypto and cash is here to stay, and how the metaverse will disrupt the financial world as we know it.

EPISODE NOTES

3 Takeaways:

The future of finance is in the hands of non-financial companies thanks to embedded finance. This enables companies to embrace FinTech solutions for their customers to sell more of their core product. As this is an added service, it can be priced competitively as the margin comes from the core product. It’s up to legacy financial institutions to work out how to aid or compete.

Crypto and Cash are both in our future. If you can handle the risk, try putting some of your money in crypto, but be prepared to lose it.

Every new opportunity is a little bit scary, but don’t let that put you off learning more about the metaverse.

Key Quotes:

“As the gold rush...now, we always look at history. Some people found gold, but very few. The ones who always made money are the ones who sold the shuffles. And I'm looking here at the metaverse, who's going to sell the shovels?” - Spiros

“We said it here first. I think the game will shift that everyone will try to do everything, but It's easier for non-financial company to provide some financial solutions on top of your core business then for bank to provide something else.” - Spiros

“I'm a huge fan of AI, but that doesn't mean I don't have to discuss trying to secure jobs, reskilling people, because at the end of the day, what's the point of all this technology if humans live worse?” - Spiros

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Links

Margaris Ventures

Spiros Margaris LinkedIn

Spiros Margaris Twitter

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About the Hosts

Matthew O'Neill is a husband, dad, geek and Industry Managing Director, Advanced Technology Group in the Office of the CTO at VMware.

You can find Matthew on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Brian Hayes is an audiophile, dad, builder of sheds, maker of mirth, world traveller and EMEA Financial Services Industry Lead at VMware.

You can find Brian on LinkedIn.

Welcome to our latest VMware CMTY Podcast episode, where we have a special guest - Karl Childs, Senior Certification Manager at VMware.

Joining us as always are our host, Eric Nielsen, and our co-host, Matt Langguth.

In this episode, we will be discussing the world of certification at VMware, with Karl sharing his valuable insights on the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in this field. We will explore key topics, including the role of certification in advancing your career, the importance of keeping up with the latest technology, and how VMware certifications can help you achieve your goals.

Karl will also share his thoughts on the new VMware certification programs, such as VCP-CO, VCP-VMC, VCP-DCV, and VCP-CMA, and how they differ from each other. We will also discuss the impact of the pandemic on certification training and how VMware has adapted to this new reality.

Join us for an informative and engaging discussion on the world of certification at VMware, and learn how you can stay ahead of the curve in this dynamic field.