Commercial Bank of Dubai CEO Dr Bernd van Linder is a rare commodity in his heavily-digitised industry. Boasting a PhD in artificial intelligence, the tech-minded leader joined CBD in January 2017, and looks the perfect fit to guide the firm into the end-to-end digital age.
The banking industry in the GCC will not promote senior executives who fear or are ignorant of technology, says Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) CEO Dr Bernd van Linder.
Dutchman van Linder is extremely conscious of the responsibility that he must bear if CBD is to succeed in the digital age, and believes that having a tech-minded CEO is just as important as possessing a businessminded CIO. “No c-suite executive can get away with saying ‘I don’t like or understand technology,’” he says. “That’s not sustainable. In this day and age, and particularly in a data-intensive industry like banking, the CEO and the c-suite have to understand technology. The flipside of that is that the CIO has to have a deep enough understanding of the business to be a credible conversation partner for the c-suite. We’re lucky at CBD that we’re covered in both respects.”
Taking the Commercial Bank of Dubai hotseat in January 2017, Dr Bernd van Linder is sure to draw envious eyes from across an industry – and region – where the pace of technological change has gathered serious momentum over the last 18 months. Banking, perhaps more so than any other industry, is under pressure to put all of its services at customers’ fingertips.
While debate rages on as to which responsibilities for digitalising an organisation lie where, having a CEO – the figure with whom the buck always stops – with proven technology credentials is sure to offer a substantial head start.
This story is from the February 2018 edition of CNME.
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This story is from the February 2018 edition of CNME.
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