The Financial Technology Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 Financial Technology CTOs of 2021. Within the financial services industry, chief technology officers are establishing the digital infrastructure that facilitates more efficient, modern, and personalized customer experiences. These leaders have led transformative initiatives within their organizations to integrate artificial intelligence, develop cross-platform solutions, bolster cybersecurity, and engage strategic technology partnerships, among other critical digitalization efforts. Serving some of the largest banking institutions and innovative fintech startups, this year’s awardees are guiding their companies in not only updating current application environments and IT systems but also in seeking out new and exciting ways to incorporate the latest in financial technology into their products and services.
Selected for their deep industry experience and their contributions to their companies and the broader financial services industry, these CTOs have become thought leaders in their field. From participating in global advisory committees and sitting on company boards, to mentoring the next generation, the multi-award-winning professionals on this year’s list have demonstrated consistent dedication to improving the financial technology landscape for both consumers and institutions. Several awardees have also spearheaded efforts in diversity and inclusion, ensuring that individuals of all backgrounds have equal opportunity to contribute their talent, ideas, and innovations to the industry. Please join us in honoring this year’s Top 25 Financial Technology CTOs of 2021.
1. Andrew Lang
Company: JPMorgan Chase
Title: Global Chief Technology Officer
Andrew Lang is the Global Chief Technology Officer of JPMorgan Chase, an American multinational investment banking and financial services holding company. Headquartered in New York City, JPMorgan Chase is the largest financial institution in the United States, boasting almost $3 trillion in assets under management. The corporation employs over 250,000 and has been named as an “Ideal Employer” and “Admired Company” by Fortune Magazine. As the Global CTO, Lang is responsible for the institution’s worldwide technology strategy and initiatives, including AI, machine learning, consumer financial technology, and blockchain. Lang is also a member of the firm’s Global Technology Leadership Team and Global Technology Operating Committee (GTOC) and is Chair of the JPMorgan Chase Distinguished Engineer community.
Before joining JPMorgan Chase, Lang was the executive vice president and global chief information officer at Wolters Kluwer, VP of IT services at Cargill, and CIO and SVP for WellPoint. He has also held several executive positions in architecture and development with Aetna, US Bank, and Visa. A technology leader, he also holds several patents and was recognized as a Premier 100 IT Leader by Computer World. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer information systems from The Ohio State University and completed post-graduate studies at Stanford University.
2. Tony Kerrison
Company: Bank of America
Title: Chief Technology Officer
Tony Kerrison is the Chief Technology Officer at Bank of America, a multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bank of America (BoA) is the second-largest financial institution in the United States and eighth largest in the world. The organization serves individuals, small and middle-market businesses, and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management, and other financial and risk management products and services, including approximately 56 million U.S. consumer and small business relationships. Kerrison boasts over 25 years of experience as a financial services CTO and is responsible for all of BoA’s technology development and operations, as well as maintaining key relationships with cloud providers and strategic partners.
With BoA and in his previous positions, Kerrison has developed strategic specialties in finance technology, early adoption strategies, global infrastructure technologies, performance improvement, and other key areas. Previously, he served the BoA as CTO of global banking, supervising infrastructure strategy and architecture. Before taking his current role, he was head of global technology infrastructure services for Barclays and held executive positions with ING, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse First Boston, and Deutsche Bank. He also previously served as the chairman of the Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council, a group of large enterprises working with ODCA, the Cloud Standards Customer Council, and other organizations to determine the future of cloud computing.
3. Simon Barlow
Company: AXA UK
Title: Group Chief Technology Officer
Simon Barlow is the Group Chief Technology Officer for AXA UK, a division of the multinational AXA insurance group. Headquartered in Paris, France, the AXA Group is one of the largest insurance brands in the world, representing more than 100 million clients in over 50 countries. The UK division specializes in home, auto, travel, and business insurance, as well as healthcare. For 20 years, Barlow has served the AXA Group in the United Kingdom, including ten years in the CTO office as either head or deputy, overseeing the development and maintenance of the enterprise architecture and making important technology decisions for the entire UK organization. His extensive experience in the financial services industry, combined with skills in enterprise software, enterprise architecture, ITIL, offshoring, and IT service management, have been an asset to AXA’s continued growth.
Before becoming the UK Group CTO, Barlow was the head of enterprise architecture. He has also served as head of strategic management information, head of data and business intelligence, and leader of enterprise application integration. Having spent his entire professional career with AXA, he has been able to contribute deep knowledge of the organization combined with technical expertise within his numerous leadership roles. Barlow holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in computing and information systems from the University of Brighton.
4. Robert Rooney
Company: Morgan Stanley
Title: Head of Technology, Operations, and Firm Resilience
Robert Rooney is the Head of Technology, Operations, and Firm Resilience for Morgan Stanley, an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York City. With its historical roots in JP Morgan & Co., Morgan Stanley has operated since 1935, offering financial services such as investment advising and wealth management for institutions, governments, and individuals. Rooney boasts over 30 years with the firm, serving as Global Head of Technology for Operations and Firm Resilience since 2017, simultaneously serving as a Managing Director for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) sectors. He is also a member of Morgan Stanley’s operating and management committees and sits on the Board of Directors of Morgan Stanley & Co. International Plc.
Previously, he was the firm’s global co-head of fixed income sales and trading, as well as leading the fixed income divisions of its EMEA and global operations. He joined the company in 1990 and was promoted to managing director in 2001. Rooney holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and history from Columbia University.
5. Vanessa Fernandes
Company: Itaú Unibanco
Title: Chief Technology Officer and Head of Corporate Architecture Brazil
Vanessa Fernandes is the Chief Technology Officer of Emerging Technologies and Open Source for Itaú Unibanco, a financial services company headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil. Founded in 2008, Itaú Unibanco is the largest banking institution in Brazil, as well as the largest in Latin America and the Southern Hemisphere. With operations in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, the institution holds over $1 trillion in assets under management worldwide. In addition to her role as CTO of Emerging Technologies and Open Source, Fernandes is also the Head of Corporate Architecture for the institution’s Brazil operations.
Fernandes is an experienced technology officer and a strong advocate for women in emerging technology. Fernandes has been a part of the Itaú team since 2008, holding several executive and management technology positions along the way. Before joining Itaú, she was an associate managing director at Kroll. She also previously served as the vice president and head of IT audit for Latin America at JPMorgan Chase & Co. In addition to her current duties, she serves as an Advisory Board Member for SmartCoparent. She holds an Executive Master of Business Administration degree in technology from Fundação Getúlio Vargas and executive business certificates from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
6. Atte Lahtiranta
Company: Goldman Sachs
Title: Chief Technology Officer
Atte Lahtiranta is the Chief Technology Officer of Goldman Sachs, a multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York City. Goldman Sachs is one of the largest investment banking organizations in the world with over $2 trillion in assets under management, with a workforce of over 40,000 employees worldwide. Several former executives have served in federal governmental roles, including three U.S. Secretaries of the Treasury. With over 20 years of technology experience, Lahtiranta leads the firm’s digital transformation and development, including application programming interfaces.
Before joining Goldman Sachs, Lahtiranta was CTO of Verizon Media Group, where he was responsible for the global organization’s IT, security, infrastructure, shared core platforms, and more. Previously, he was a senior fellow, architect, and VP of engineering at Yahoo, which was acquired by Verizon in 2017. He was also a chief architect in several departments of Nokia, where he spent almost a decade. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki, Finland.
7. John Repko
Company: AIG
Title: Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer
John Repko is the Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of AIG, a New York-based global insurance organization. With operations in over 80 countries and jurisdictions, AIG is one of the leading insurance providers in the world, providing a wide range of property and casualty insurance, life insurance, retirement solutions, and other financial services to support its clients through its General Insurance, Life & Retirement, and Investments business units. In his executive position, Repko leads AIG’s global technology and sourcing functions, overseeing core shared infrastructure, applications, technology partnerships, procurement, and vendor management, working closely in support of technology-enabled, cross-business collaboration, process improvement, and strategic sourcing.
Prior to joining AIG, he was the vice president and global chief information officer of Johnson Controls, where he notably led IT and business process integration and due diligence for the JCI/Tyco merger, including managing IT integration spend of $135 million, among other significant contributions. Previously, he was SVP, chief information officer, and enterprise transformation leader with Tyco. He also previously held executive positions at Covance and GE. In addition to his current position, he also serves as a member of the Lightspeed Venture Partners CIO Innovation Advisory Network. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Villanova University and a Master of Business Administration degree in IT systems from Drexel University.
8. Sabet Elias
Company: BNY Mellon
Title: Chief Technology Officer and Managing Director
Sabet Elias is the Chief Technology Officer and Managing Director for BNY Mellon, an American investment banking services organization headquartered in New York City. BNY Mellon was formed in 2007 by the merger of The Bank of New York and the Mellon Financial Corporation and is the world's largest custodian bank and asset servicing company, with $2 trillion in assets under management and more than $38 trillion in assets under custody. As CTO, Elias is responsible for helping the firm shape its global technology agenda and leads technology infrastructure and cross-platform solutions development. He boasts over 20 years of deep management and technical experience in building and operating global high-performance, mission-critical environments.
Before joining BNY Mellon, he was CTO and a managing director for Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s global banking and markets where he was responsible for strategy, architecture, and a cross-asset platform that enables consistent pricing and risk calculations throughout the entire technology stack. Previously, he also served as CTO for Citi and for Lehman Brothers, where he led the engineering support and build-out of data centers, core infrastructure, networks, servers, storage, and platforms supported by the firm’s applications. He began his career at AT&T Bell Labs. Elias holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of London and a Master of Science degree in information systems from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
9. Alex Cesar
Company: Kantar
Title: Chief Technology Officer
Alex Cesar is the Chief Technology Officer for Kantar, a data analytics and brand consulting company, based in London, England. In this role, she will be responsible for defining and delivering the future technology agenda for Kantar’s next phase of growth. She will take over the CTO position effective July 1, 2021, having previously served as the chief information officer of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), a London-based stock exchange and financial information company. Cesar was appointed CIO of LSEG upon the acquisition of Refinitiv, a global provider of financial market data and infrastructure, where she was chief technology officer since 2019.
Previously, she served as LSEG’s global head of enterprise data platform technology and global head of risk technology. She also previously served as global head of risk technology at Thomson Reuters, AFC, was governance and legal technology head at Deutsche Bank, and head of compliance and assurance technology at Standard Chartered Bank. She additionally served as head of compliance technology strategy for the Singapore development center of JP Morgan. She holds an engineering degree from the University of São Paolo and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Cass Management School in London.
10. George Maddaloni
Company: Mastercard
Title: Chief Technology Officer, Operations
George Maddaloni is the Chief Technology Officer of Operations at Mastercard, an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York. With nearly a billion cards issued worldwide, Mastercard is the second-largest credit card network globally. The company is also an innovator in financial technology and a significant supporter of startups in the emerging technology sectors, including contactless payments and cryptocurrencies. Maddaloni joined Mastercard in 2020, serving as the CTO and spearheading a defining and guiding IT vision, strategy, and execution for the company. He is passionate about forward-looking leadership and sparking success in culture and change management.
Maddaloni boasts nearly 25 years of experience in the corporate technology field, including most recently serving as global CTO of AIG. Previously, he served as the managing director of global network services, operations, and infrastructure with UBS. His career in business technology began with 15 years of service at AT&T, where he worked in systems architecture and managed services. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and computer science from The Johns Hopkins University, a Master of Science degree in telecommunications management from Stevens Institute of Technology, and Master of Business Administration degrees from Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business and the George Washington University School of Business.
11. Derek Stein
Company: BlackRock
Title: Global Head of Operations and Technology
Derek Stein is the Global Head of Operations and Technology at BlackRock, a multinational investment management corporation based in New York City. Founded in 1988 as a risk management and institutional asset management company, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with $8.67 trillion in assets under management. In his current role, Stein is responsible for the firm's worldwide operations across all asset classes and geographies, ensuring that operational functions are aligned with clients, products, fund structures, and third-party provider networks. He also serves as a member of the Global Executive Committee and is the President and CEO of BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A.
Before joining the firm, he served as the chief information officer for Barclays Global Investors, which merged with BlackRock in 2009. In this role, he was responsible for all aspects of BGI's operations and technology services. Previously, he was an executive vice president with the Knight Capital Group, where he also served in executive operations and administration roles and oversaw operations, technology, strategy, and risk management. He also spent a decade with Merrill Lynch, where he managed and coordinated the company’s institutional global services organization across fixed income and equities, infrastructure investments, and eCommerce operations. He started his career as a practicing Chartered Accountant in South Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in computer science and a Master of Science degree in finance from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
12. Alan Lowden
Company: H&R Block
Title: Chief Information Officer
Alan Lowden is the Chief Information Officer of H&R Block, an American tax preparation company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1955, H&R Block operates over 10,000 retail tax offices staffed by tax professionals and Certified Public Accountants worldwide, boasting annual revenue in excess of $3 billion. In addition to tax preparation services, the company offers consumer tax software and online tax preparation and electronic filing, as well as payroll and business consulting services. As CIO, Lowden is responsible for all aspects of technology, information security, and support across the company’s global development sites and retail offices. He also sits on the Board of Directors for H&R Block’s Global Technology Center. He brings to his role a track record of transforming technology, business, and consulting organizations at scale.
Prior to his current role, Lowden served in several executive roles at H&R Block, including general manager of Block Advisors, vice president of client experience, and vice president of technology for the company’s retail and consumer tax systems. Previously, he was director of professional services and VP of enterprise government for Perceptive Software, a senior manager at Accenture, and a consultant at Andersen Consulting. He currently sits on multiple industry boards, including Samsung’s Executive Advisory Board, the Board of Directors for Community America Credit Union, and the Board of Directors for the KC Tech Council. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from The University of Kansas.
13. Brian Woodring
Company: Quicken Loans
Title: Chief Information Officer
Brian Woodring is the Chief Information Officer of Quicken Loans, a mortgage lending and financial services company. Based in Detroit, Michigan, Quicken Loans is an innovator in the field of online mortgage lending thanks to its Rocket Mortgage platform, launched in 2015. In 2020, the company boasted a revenue of $7 billion, and the company is consistently praised and awarded for being one of the best places to work. Woodring leads an award-winning technology team responsible for the strategy and execution of digital products, technology platforms, and data intelligence. He joined the company in 2017 as the chief technology officer overseeing the product engineering team, building products and platforms such as Rocket Mortgage.
Woodring has over 20 years of industry experience and previously, he was the CIO of Albertelli Law, founder and managing partner of The Phoenix Team, and executive vice president of servicing technologies at Black Knight Financial Services. He was also CTO of servicing solutions for ServiceLink, VP of Lending Processing Services, Inc., and chief architect for Expand, Inc. He started his career as a software engineer at Modasco and Medtronic. Now with Quicken Loans, his goals are to build digital products that make clients confident and happy, and to lead teams with a sense of shared purpose and mission.
14. Shannon Johnston
Company: Global Payments
Title: Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
Shannon Johnston is the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the Consumer Solutions, Data, and Architecture division of Global Payments, an Atlanta, Georgia-based financial services technology company. Founded in 1967, Global Payments is a leading pure-play payments technology company delivering innovative software and services globally. The company’s technologies, services, and employee expertise fuel a broad range of solutions that allow clients to operate their businesses more efficiently across multiple channels.
Johnston boasts a long track record of success in both the technology and financial services industries including more than a decade of executive experience. Before joining Global Payments, she served as the chief information officer at Mspark, chief operating officer for ShopVisible, and CTO of the Points of Light Institute. She also spent several years in multiple roles with Atlanticus’ CompuCredit, where she was responsible for worldwide IT operations. Passionate about her field and about supporting women leaders, she was a 2011 Stevie award finalist for Coach and Mentor of the Year and is a contributing author to the book ‘CLIMB: Leading Women in Technology Share Their Journeys to Success.’ She is also a former director and mentor with Women in Technology (WIT) and recipient of its WIT 2009 Women of the Year in Technology award, and received Girl Geek’s 60 Female CTOs to Watch in 2020 award. She holds a Bachelor of General Studies degree in English from Armstrong State University.
15. Eli Rosner
Company: Finastra
Title: Chief Product and Technology Officer
Eli Rosner is the Chief Product and Technology Officer at Finastra, the world’s largest pure-play software company for the financial services industry. An innovative thinker, Rosner is an expert on how open platforms, multi-sided networks, data, and open APIs provide the foundation for industry collaboration, product innovation, and, ultimately, business transformation. His teams’ recent initiatives include a company-wide commitment to eradicating bias from fintech and championing women in tech through the company’s recent International Women’s Day hackathon. Under his guardianship, Finastra’s FusionFabric.cloud has become a pioneering open development platform in financial services. It’s currently home to 55+ third-party applications and has a catalog of over 160 APIs and 23 sandboxes, to accelerate innovation for Finastra’s customer base of 8,500+ financial institutions.
Before joining Finastra, Rosner held leadership positions at NCR Corp, a global technology company. He was most recently the CTO and head of product management there, driving the transformation from a hardware and services company to a global leader in platforms, data, and solutions for financial services, retail, and hospitality. He has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and computer science from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.
16. Marianna Tessel
Company: Intuit
Title: Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President
Marianna Tessel is Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President at Intuit, an American financial technology company based in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 1983, Intuit is a leading provider of digital accounting software and online tax preparation software, including its signature QuickBooks platform. The company boasts an annual revenue of more than $7 billion and growing, and employs more than 10,600 employees. In her executive roles, Tessel oversees the company’s technology strategy and product engineering, data science, information technology, and information security teams worldwide. Since joining Intuit in 2017, she has led a team of more than 1,500 engineers who are helping entrepreneurs and businesses grow.
Before her current position, Tessel was Intuit’s chief product development officer for small businesses and self-employed individuals. Previously, she was a senior vice president of engineering and EVP of product development for Docker, Inc., as well as VP of engineering at VMware and Intacct Corporation. She also held VP-level engineering roles at Ariba and General Magic. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Technion Israel Institute of Technology and has completed graduate studies at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
17. Ivneet Kaur
Company: Silicon Valley Bank
Title: Chief Technology Officer
Ivneet Kaur is the Chief Technology Officer of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a California-based high-tech commercial banking institution. Headquartered in Santa Clara, SVB is the largest bank in Silicon Valley and a prominent lender in the northern California wine production industry. Its primary lending focus is on technology enterprises in Silicon Valley, as well as private banking services for wealthy individuals. As CTO, Kaur serves as the catalyst for overall technology strategy, leading the Architecture & Tech-Lab, cloud and DevSecOps strategy and transformation, global API platform capabilities, and agile transformation.
Kaur is driven by solving significant business challenges and creating value for customers – a mission that she has carried throughout her career. Previously, she served as CTO/CIO for Equifax Australia-New Zealand, where she also held an SVP role in product architecture and VP roles in the technology department. She joined Equifax upon the acquisition of IXI Services as a technology program product manager. Prior to IXI, she served as a product development manager for Claritas, where she developed and enhanced solutions that enriched core customer and market insights. She began her career as a software engineer for Microsoft. Kaur holds a master’s degree in engineering management from the University of Maryland, College Park.
18. Alla Whitston
Company: CIT
Title: Chief Technology Officer
Alla Whitston is the Chief Technology Officer of CIT, a financial holding company and bank holding company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1908, CIT provides financing, leasing, and advisory services to middle-market companies and small businesses in a variety of industries and is one of the 50 largest banks in the United States. The company strives to advance initiatives around driving sustainability, investing in human capital, supporting communities, and operating with high ethical standards and was honored as one of “America’s Best Midsize Employers” for 2018 by Forbes. With nearly 30 years of professional management and technology experience, Whitson leads CIT’s technology planning and development, including its business point-of-sale platform and all other proprietary digital applications.
Previously, she served as CTO for Bank of America’s workspace services, enterprise functions, and data office. She has also held management positions with JP Morgan, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, and Bankers Trust. In all her roles, Whitston has developed extensive experience in building and leading global IT infrastructure and business application development organizations. Her ability to grow client and strategic partner relationships has been critical to the companies she has served, and she has notably led strong diversity and inclusion efforts throughout her career. Whitston holds a Master of Science degree in computer science from Georgia Technical University.
19. Marc Jones
Company: Alkami Technology
Title: Chief Technology Officer
Marc Jones leads Alkami’s Engineering group as its Chief Technology Officer, including the software architecture, development, site reliability, and quality assurance teams, advancing the company’s investments in technology talent and expertise for the future. Based in Plano, Texas, Alkami's solutions reshape the modern banking landscape by delivering bold and innovative digital capabilities to U.S. banks and credit unions. Its cloud-based digital banking platform humanizes digital banking so small financial institutions can confidently grow, adapt quickly, and build a thriving digital community. Jones brings to his role specialties in application development and integration, application architecture, IT strategy and management, product development, mobile computing, and cloud hosting.
With nearly 25 years of experience in software development, information technology, product development, and cloud platform innovation, Jones has facilitated several industry-first innovations. Before joining the Office of the Chief Executive, he led Alkami’s Product Engineering group, overseeing key technology initiatives including moving to the cloud. Prior to joining Alkami, Jones spent almost eight years at SoftLayer, an IBM Company, in roles including VP of product innovation and chief technology officer, as well as being named an IBM Distinguished Engineer. Before SoftLayer, he served as Director of Product Development at Rackspace in its emerging cloud division. Jones holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in business information systems from the University of North Texas and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business.
20. Ran Harpaz
Company: Hippo Insurance
Title: Chief Technology Officer
Ran Harpaz is the Chief Technology Officer of Hippo Insurance, an American property insurance company based in Palo Alto, California. Harpaz is an experienced technology leader with demonstrated agility and adaptiveness to lead hyper-growth companies. In May 2019, Harpaz joined Hippo to accelerate the development of its technology organization with an aggressive growth timeline, scaling the company to reach more than 70 percent of the U.S. homeowner population and it soon expects to reach 95 percent. As both a technologist and a business strategist, Harpaz was perfectly suited to drive Hippo’s unique vision to provide the best experience for home insurance customers with a new standard of care and protection. Today, he oversees an expert team of engineers, IT professionals, data analysts, and scientists to bring Hippo’s proactive technology to market and support critical business functions across the organization.
Throughout his career, Harpaz has led innovative business strategies and the development of products, cloud infrastructure, AI capabilities, information systems, and customer support teams. He was the founding CTO of Globality, a B2B marketplace for consulting services, and at PayPal, he developed the mobile payments roadmap and execution plan that was foundational to the firm’s global leadership in mobile payments. He has held corporate technology leadership roles at Netvision and Cellcom, led startups Skybox Security and Sanctum, and served as a consultant at McKinsey & Co. Harpaz holds a Master of Business Administration degree, a Bachelor of Laws degree, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Tel Aviv University and is a veteran of the elite intelligence unit 8200.
21. Chris Piazza
Company: iCapital Network
Title: Chief Technology Officer
Chris Piazza is the Chief Technology Officer at iCapital Network, a financial technology company that connects advisors and their high-net-worth investors to leading alternative investment managers through a best-in-class user experience. The company has seen significant growth over the past few years and as of April 30, 2021, iCapital Network services $75 billion in global client assets across more than 769 funds and over 90 white label partnerships. In his current role, Piazza is responsible for all software development and technology, drawing on his over 20 years of technology experience.
Prior to iCapital, Piazza was the CTO for PINCHme.com, where he delivered a high-volume consumer platform for the targeted delivery of consumer packaged goods products. He also previously served as the CTO of OneWire, where he built the product and technology teams and produced the first-ever SaaS online recruiting solution focused on the financial services market. He also co-founded and was the CTO of both Builders Square Inc. and Iguana Studios, and started his career as a senior developer at Applied Business Technology, Inc. Piazza received his Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Pace University.
22. Iftah Gideoni
Company: Forter
Title: Chief Technology Officer
Iftah Gideoni is the Chief Technology Officer at Forter, the leader in eCommerce fraud prevention that processes over $200 billion in commerce transactions and protects close to a billion customers globally from credit card fraud, account takeover, policy abuse, and more. In his role, Gideoni oversees the inner workings of Forter’s platform. Under his leadership, the company has developed new products that accurately identify and block fraud while establishing trust between merchants, payment providers, and customers – allowing merchants to process more legitimate transactions and provide a better customer experience to the growing number of consumers transacting online.
Gideoni has spent more than 20 years as an R&D executive, earning multiple recognitions as a top fintech CTO. His vast experience began in aeronautics when he served as an officer and a jet pilot in the Israeli Air Force. Prior to joining Forter, Gideoni was chief scientist, VP of R&D, and chief data officer at myThings.com, where he led company-wide change, developing architecture, machine learning processes, business logic, and real-time tiered databases. Gideoni received his Bachelor of Science degree in physics with distinction from Tel Aviv University, and a Master of Science degree from the University of British Columbia in the areas of inference and decisions under uncertainty.
23. Sulu Velugu
Company: Sureify
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Sulu Velugu is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Sureify, a high-tech life insurance and annuity company headquartered in San José, California. Sureify provides a SaaS platform to life and annuity companies worldwide, including its LifeTime enterprise software platform that enables insurers to acquire, engage, and cross-sell throughout a customer’s lifetime. As CTO, Velugu is responsible for architecting the company’s platform and leading the technical team while also serving as a member of the information security team.
Previously, Velugu served as CTO for Vendus Product Labs and MSR Cosmos. He also worked with SaaS Softpro Leaders as VP of technology services, where he directed the architecture of an employee benefits platform. He began his career as a software developer for Solivar, Inc., where he eventually grew into a lead solutions architect role. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Nagarjuna University and a master’s degree in computer applications from Andhra University College of Engineering in India.
24. Jessica McKellar
Company: Pilot.com
Title: Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Jessica McKellar is the Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Pilot.com, a provider of accounting, bookkeeping, and other financial services and technology. Based in San Francisco, Pilot.com powers the financial back office for startups and small businesses, specializing in bookkeeping, tax preparation, and CFO services and delivering a customer experience of unparalleled quality. McKellar founded Pilot with her partners Jeff Arnold and Waseem Daher in 2017, and the company quickly found both success and funding with its next-generation approach to bookkeeping software.
The trio previously founded two other companies: Zulip, Inc, acquired by Dropbox, and Ksplice, acquired by Oracle. Upon the acquisition of Zulip, McKellar served as director of engineering at Dropbox and similarly became an engineering manager at Oracle upon the acquisition of Ksplice. She is a former director for the Python Software Foundation and was PyCon North America’s diversity outreach chair. She holds both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
25. Dmitry Kharchenko
Company: Friendsurance
Title: Chief Technology Officer and Chief Data Officer
Dmitry Kharchenko is the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Data Officer of Friendsurance, an independent digital insurance broker. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Friendsurance provides innovative digital solutions with the goal of making insurance more customer-friendly. In 2010, the company introduced the first peer-to-peer insurance model, for which it received accolades and awards. In his dual roles as CTO and CDO, with 20 years of experience, Kharchenko is responsible for overseeing the continued digitization of insurance services and company scalability. His ability to fuse technological know-how with business savvy has been integral in helping Friendsurance to develop innovative and successful bancassurance solutions.
Previously, he served as CTO and CIO of bonify Germany, as well as CTO and co-founder of MoneyMap GmbH. He also served as a CTO-in-residence with German fintech company FinLeap and before that built cybersecurity startup Firelayers. Additionally, he was a founder, co-CEO, and CTO of WizeVision International, an Israeli provider of web, mobile, and software development. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University of Derby in England and an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from the European School of Management and Technology.
