Rimes Innovation Forum Sydney

Vijay is a proven Fintech leader with a track record of transforming and scaling global Fintech businesses. He is a recognized leader in harnessing next-generation technologies to solve complex data and workflow challenges for the world’s leading financial institutions.

Prior to Rimes, Vijay spent 12 years at Broadridge Financial Solutions, a period during which the company’s market capitalization grew from under $3 billion to over $30 billion. As a key member of the Executive Team and most recently as President of Capital Markets, he transformed a foundational post-trade solutions business into a $1.1 billion global leader in trading, data, and analytics. A passionate product innovator, Vijay has consistently pushed the boundaries of financial technology, creating market-leading platforms leveraging AI, smart contracts, tokenization, and other next-generation technologies.

Vijay’s broad experience includes private equity investing, hands-on technology roles building fixed income trading systems, strategic consulting for financial institutions at BCG and co-founding a venture-backed data company, leading it through a full lifecycle from inception to a strategic acquisition. He is also a named inventor on a number of patents in financial technology and market structure.

He holds an MSc in Machine Learning & Data Science from Imperial College, London, an MBA from The Wharton School, and a BA/MA in Physics from the University of Oxford.

Vijay is based in New York.

Kevin is a Partner and Head of Alpha FMC’s APAC Investments Practice, based in Sydney. He brings 25+ years of global experience across Asset Management and technology, including investment platforms, middle-office transformation and multi-year re-platforming programmes.

Kevin has deep subject-matter expertise with numerous investments systems/platforms across selection and business case, architecture and operating-model design, readiness and preparation through to implementation and ‘Day Two’.

Prior to joining Alpha, Kevin spent 8+ years in leading roles in a Big 4’s Wealth and Asset Management consulting practice in the UK, and before that, 10 years at a global $300bn AuM Asset Manager in roles across four countries spanning Technology, Operations and Investment Compliance.

Outside of the office, Kevin is a sports fan who runs a bit, aches a lot and has a very poor track record on a mountain bike.

Doreen is an experienced Data and Technology executive with over 20 years’ experience working across Australasia, Europe, and Canada. Her background in Computer Engineering, Technology Product development and Technical Program Delivery, has enabled Doreen to deliver complex data and technology programs across Asset, Super and Wealth organisations. As a highly respected collaborator, Doreen’s advisory role at 1886 includes Data and Technology Strategy, Solution Architecture, Operating Model and AI Solution design and assessment.

Rein recently joined Deloitte as a Partner and co-leads Deloitte’s Investment Management & Technology practice. Rein brings more than 20 years’ experience across the investment management, superannuation, and insurance sectors, and was most recently Head of APAC at Cutter Associates, where he has led Cutter’s expansion across APAC, supporting clients across the region.

Ashraf Safdar leads Databricks’ Financial Services Industry (FSI) Go-To-Market Business covering Asia Pacific, bringing over two decades of experience driving innovation and transformation at the intersection of banking and technology.

Throughout his career, Ashraf has held leadership positions at prominent financial institutions and technology companies. Most recently at Amazon Web Services (AWS), he directed cross-industry solutions throughout ASEAN, working closely with the Boards of Global and Regional Financial Institutions to leverage cloud capabilities for accelerated growth. Prior to AWS, he served as Head of Advisory, Proposition and Sales Management at HSBC, where he oversaw the integration of BlackRock’s Aladdin risk analytic platform into HSBC’s wealth management portfolio while managing sales strategy in South East Asia. Earlier at UBS, he spearheaded change and transformation initiatives for the APAC CEO’s office, driving regulatory, pricing and system changes across the business.

He is a co-author of the Databricks 2026 Financial Services Outlook, a Financial Times panelist on both scaling AI across the enterprise and, most recently, agentic AI in financial services, and a regular speaker at the Singapore FinTech Festival and the Databricks Data + AI World Tour. He is a frequent media commentator on AI in finance. He has also hosted the nationally televised current affairs programme Singapore Talking, and co-creating the International Emmy-nominated debate series The Arena. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, King’s College London and the University of Chicago.

Bill joined Rimes as Global Head of Enterprise Data Management (EDM) Sales, bringing more than 25 years of leadership experience in financial technology and data management. Most recently, he served as Global Head of Sales, Enterprise Data Management at S&P Global Market Intelligence, where he led teams across North America, EMEA, and APAC. Before joining S&P Global, Bill was Global Business Development Director at Gresham Technologies and previously held senior roles at SmartStream Technologies, Mercator, and Finastra, building a track record of commercial excellence and strategic growth.

Neal is the Head of IMP Product, with a strategic focus on the North American and EMEA regions. In this role, Neal is responsible for delivering the next generation of Investment Management Platform solutions at scale. He collaborates closely with our AI and EDM teams to ensure holistic value delivery to our clients. 

Neal brings 20 years of extensive experience in the finance industry. Before his current role, Neal led the IBD Analytics group within Barclays Investment Banking Division. There, he was instrumental in delivering financial engineering and quantitative advisory products across various asset classes. Neal also played a key role in the Barclays Group Innovation Office, where he worked on developing capital markets innovations. His work involved close collaboration with fintech start-ups specializing in capital markets, analytics, and financial engineering. At Deutsche Bank, he held leadership positions, including running the EMEA Electronic Execution and Analytics division and co-leading the European Central Risk Team. Additionally, Neal has experience trading delta one products during his tenure at Goldman Sachs. 

Neal is deeply committed to leveraging a broad spectrum of technological capabilities, including AI, Data Science, Financial Engineering, and Machine Learning, to create significant value for clients. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science, with specializations in Security and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Cape Town and Rand Academic University.