Unleashing AI: Shaping the Future of Financial Services

Randall Brett has held senior management positions for over 25 years in software development and financial services. Currently, he is Head of Risk Technology at Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, a Quantitative Long/Short Equity hedge fund based in NYC. Previously, he was at Pine River Capital Management in NYC, most recently as Managing Director, Chief Technology Officer. His prior positions include: Senior Vice President, Application Development and Integration at Harvard Management Company, Boston; Director, Risk Technology at SAC Capital Management, and CTO at Askari Risk Management Systems/DSTi. Education: BA, English, Sociology, University of Colorado, 1980 PRM Certification, 2006 (Professional Risk Manager).

Johna Till Johnson, CEO of Nemertes and content committee chair for the WSTA, is known for her roles as an Engineer, Adventurer, Researcher, and Storyteller. Johna holds a BS/EE from The Johns Hopkins University and conducted research in the PhD program in particle physics at the University of Rochester. She has designed embedded security systems for banks, run the lab testing program at Data Communications Magazine, and led research and development as Chief Technology Officer at Greenwich Technology Partners, a global engineering firm. At Nemertes, the research-advisory firm she founded in 2002, her focus includes cybersecurity, AI, quantum computing, and emerging technologies. Johna is widely-published at organizations including the Defense Tactical Information Center (DTIC), Business Communications Review, Electronic Design, and TechTarget. A long-time adventurer, she has completed several 300-mile solo kayak and sailing expeditions and sea races. 

What are financial services firms doing with AI? What are current best practices for implementation, governance, implementation, and management? And how are financial organizations seeing—or not seeing—value creation from AI?

In this short presentation, Nemertes CEO and WSTA Content Committee Chair Johna Till Johnson shares findings from the Nemertes research study on enterprise AI, with a focus on financial services firms. She compares financial services firms with other organizations, highlights critical differences, and translates the findings into actionable recommendations for financial firms.

Ramesh Nagarajan has over 25 years of IT experience and currently serves his customers as a Global Accounts Sr. Chief Technologist at OpenText. He serves his customers with technical thought leadership as a trusted technical advisor and partner ensuring technical success in pursuit of business objectives.  Ramesh is a generalist across all enterprise software functional areas but specializes in the financial services industry and DevOps functional area. He is passionate about IT4IT and other business value delivery frameworks. Ramesh started his career in software development and later transitioned into roles in consulting and eventually solution architecture. When Ramesh is not helping customers solve complex challenges you can find him listening to music or studying various facets of philosophy.

With AI spearheading the technology driven transformation, the financial service industry is struggling to find a delicate balance between transformative benefits of AI and its potential pitfalls. Join us to explore real-world financial sector AI examples and how to leverage upcoming AI capabilities for market competitiveness, meet business demands, and maintain regulatory compliance. The session will highlight how to accomplish key transformations effectively and responsibly to realize the potential advantages of AI across Business and IT.

IP litigator Toby M.J. Butterfield has decades of experience litigating and counseling on copyright, trademark, and defamation matters. He is the lawyer major media companies, theater producers, big brands, technology companies and luxury goods designers call to protect their properties and keep their revenue streams safe.

A sought-after speaker, Butterfield lectures at bar and industry events and Columbia Law School, including legal and television conferences all over the world. An industry expert, Butterfield is often quoted by the BBC World News, Forbes TV, the New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, Law360 and many other news and legal publications.

Wiliam Tanenbaum is an IP and technology partner and the Chair of the AI & Data Practice at Moses Singer. He is a Past President of the International Technology Law Association, a “Lawyer of the Year” in IT in New York, a “Global Elite Thought Leader” in Data,” a “leading name in AI,” an “IP Star,” and one of the “Top 10 Pioneering Tech Lawyers Shaping New York’s Legal Landscape” who is “well-recognized” for “successfully navigation negotiations” and his “deft handling of commercial deals relating to cutting-edge technologies.” He graduated from Brown University (Phi Beta Kapp) and Cornell Law School.

Third-party vendors create hidden and under-appreciated risks to a financial institution’s use of AI.  This session will provide practical take-ways on how to avoid having third-party vendors to the following:  disclose confidential information of clients and business partners that financial institutions are under a duty to protect; undermine a company’s competitive advantage, either inadvertently or by design, through incorporating company proprietary information into the vendor’s standard service offering; and jeopardize a financial institution’s compliance with regulatory privacy obligations by forcing the institution to rely on the privacy practices of the vendor rather than its own.  

Mark is a principal business consultant at Confluent and works with our customers to define, secure and improve business value, cost recovery and drive adoption.  He has enabled multiple global enterprise teams to establish TCOs, ROIs, KPIs and Business Analytics. Mark has worked professionally as a developer, engineer, architect and consultant in information technology since 1997. Around 2007, he focused on implementation of open-source software solutions and has been involved in a number of developing initiatives.

After joining Confluent in January 2019, he has worked with some of Confluent’s largest enterprise clients to deliver modern robust distributed data platforms. As a Business Consultant, Mark advises and consults on business cases, enterprise adoption, value and strategic planning of event streaming platforms. 

A little over a year ago ChatGPT exploded from a corner of computer science onto the main stage of corporate IT strategy. As the ML/Data models and processes of the last decade mature, we can examine the value of AI today and the business case for the next phase of the AI Journey, specifically in financial services. 

This session will separate the AI hype from reality, highlight what it brings to the table today, and explore how LLMs will impact the next 10-15 years of software development. Finally, we’ll examine ways that financial services leaders can prepare data systems today to meet future demands for data.

Damon Edwards is Senior Director, Product at PagerDuty. Previously, Damon was a Co-Founder of Rundeck, the makers of the popular open source runbook automation platform acquired by PagerDuty in 2020. Prior to Rundeck, Damon was a Managing Partner at DTO Solutions, a DevOps and Operations Improvement Consultancy noted for its work with large-scale enterprises. Damon has spent the past 25 years working with both the technology and business ends of IT Operations.

Cost, speed, and quality have long dictated the standards of IT Operations performance. Historically, significant enhancements in these areas have only been achieved through incremental advancements that demand continuous, intensive efforts over long time horizons. Is that about to change? Does the rise of AI present us with opportunities to make great transformative leaps forward?

In this talk, we’ll make the case that — despite the overheating hype — AI will transform operations in ways that may leave late adopters at a competitive disadvantage. We’ll also take a peek at how early movers are applying AI to their operations and make some recommendations for getting started with infusing AI into your organization today. 

Perry Rotella is the Managing Director, Financial Services for Box. Perry has 25+ years in executive leadership roles including Financial Services Industry Specialist at Amazon Web Services, Senior Executive Partner at Gartner, CIO and Group Executive at Verisk Analytics, CIO at Moody’s Corporation, and Global CTO at AIG. Perry holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

90% of the data in your enterprise is unstructured – client agreements, sales presentations, financial statements, and so on. With the power of AI, you can unlock critical business insights within this unstructured data, create personalized content faster, and speed up critical processes across the business.

Discover how AI technology enables Financial Services organizations to create seamless experiences for their customers, modernize business operations, and gain analytic insights, all while ensuring proprietary data remains secure.

This interactive session provides validated best practices for managing AI initiatives, including governance, operations, and quality assurance. Our team of experts shares the insights they’ve gleaned working with AI and applying it to their organizations. We provide a candid discussion of the challenges, pitfalls, and benefits of AI, and answer audience questions about the same. Our goal is to provide a concise shortlist of effective practices that technology professionals can apply at their financial services organizations, regardless of the state of their AI initiatives.

Johna Till Johnson, CEO of Nemertes and content committee chair for the WSTA, is known for her roles as an Engineer, Adventurer, Researcher, and Storyteller. Johna holds a BS/EE from The Johns Hopkins University and conducted research in the PhD program in particle physics at the University of Rochester. She has designed embedded security systems for banks, run the lab testing program at Data Communications Magazine, and led research and development as Chief Technology Officer at Greenwich Technology Partners, a global engineering firm. At Nemertes, the research-advisory firm she founded in 2002, her focus includes cybersecurity, AI, quantum computing, and emerging technologies. Johna is widely-published at organizations including the Defense Tactical Information Center (DTIC), Business Communications Review, Electronic Design, and TechTarget. A long-time adventurer, she has completed several 300-mile solo kayak and sailing expeditions and sea races.

Hemathri is a highly result focused technology leader with extensive experience in leading multiple Technology & Data Transformation initiatives across various large global financial institutions. He has led large scale IT and business transformation initiatives in the US and internationally which includes UK, Germany, Switzerland, Australia & Singapore.

Hemathri is currently the managing director and head of engineering and data, responsible for leading product architecture, cloud engineering & data platform for the wealth and consumer banking business. His team is focusing on developing an analytical and operational data platform consisting of real-time streaming data pipeline, data lake using a data mesh architecture and lake-house for data science sandboxes on-demand using AWS and Azure public cloud infrastructure.

He established AI and data product acceleration garage which focuses on creating hyper-personalized insights, nudges and next-best-actions that are truly market differentiating across clients and advisor journeys including short-term and long-term goal and savings plan, client segmentation and personalization of digital engagement platforms.

He also leads the Strategic Solutions & Execution team for Data & Analytics and manages portfolio of cross-functional AI/ML initiatives. This platform involves coordinating frameworks, infrastructure and roadmaps to deploy analytics across our businesses and functions, not only within the consumer organization but across centralized functions as well including ML-CoE & Corporate Technology functions.

Joe is the Chief Data & Analytics Officer for Wealth Management Americas. In this capacity, he is responsible creating business value from our data and analytics assets which includes responsibility for our data platforms, data management office, regulatory reporting, MIS, and advanced analytics / STAAT.

He joined UBS Global Research in 2014 as the Head of Client Analytics & CRM before becoming CTO of UBS Evidence Lab.

Joe earned his Computer Science degree from NYU Tandon School of Engineering and holds an MBA from NYU Stern. Prior to joining UBS, Joe led Analytics and CRM related technology areas at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.

Brad currently leads DataIku’s Financial Services Industry Solutions for North America. He previously was a Customer Success Director for DataRobot focused on building AI use case projects for strategic customers. And in his early career in finance, Brad was a credit analyst at JPMorgan and an equity investor at a long/short hedge fund.

Rob is a seasoned Pre-Sales Architect specializing in Business Process Management (BPM), DevOps, RPA, and IDP platforms. With 15+ years of experience at firms like IBM, Kofax, Ayasdi, and CognitiveScale, he is a trusted advisor known for driving business value and achieving client goals. At SS&C Blue Prism, Rob pioneered industry-focused frameworks for insurance investment accounting and loan management, showcasing his innovative approach.

John Trapani is a Global Industry Leader at Appian Corporation, working with leaders in Financial Services to help  drive growth and create opportunities for digital transformation using the Appian automation platform.  In this role he works to ensure Appian delivers applications that help drive growth, manage risk, and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their business processes.

Christine Tu is the Head of AI, Knowledge Management and works from New York. She joined the Firm in June 2019 and was chartered to transform the Contact Center and AI enabled digital application. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, she worked at Merrill Lynch/Bank of America for over 20 years managing various technology platforms, including the largest IVR in the financial industry, and had experience building voice-enabled chatbot.

In her current role, Christine leads Generative AI for Wealth Management and the Firm. Leveraging GenAI and ML, her team developed flagship innovation applications and platforms for Morgan Stanley Financial Advisor to better service their clients. She now leads and focuses on applying latest advancement of GenAI to the firm level.

Johna Till Johnson, CEO of Nemertes and content committee chair for the WSTA, is known for her roles as an Engineer, Adventurer, Researcher, and Storyteller. Johna holds a BS/EE from The Johns Hopkins University and conducted research in the PhD program in particle physics at the University of Rochester. She has designed embedded security systems for banks, run the lab testing program at Data Communications Magazine, and led research and development as Chief Technology Officer at Greenwich Technology Partners, a global engineering firm. At Nemertes, the research-advisory firm she founded in 2002, her focus includes cybersecurity, AI, quantum computing, and emerging technologies. Johna is widely-published at organizations including the Defense Tactical Information Center (DTIC), Business Communications Review, Electronic Design, and TechTarget. A long-time adventurer, she has completed several 300-mile solo kayak and sailing expeditions and sea races. 

Eric Horsman is a seasoned sales engineering leader with over 24 years of experience in the APM and observability space. His career journey is a unique blend of entrepreneurial spirit, deep technical expertise, and a proven track record of building and leading high-performing teams.

Eric‘s story began at Precise Software, where he started as an intern and eventually built and led the US IT infrastructure, playing a key role in the company’s successful IPO in 2001. This early experience ignited his passion for technology and its power to drive business success.

Following his entrepreneurial venture, Eric transitioned to larger organizations, leveraging his technical skills and leadership abilities to lead and manage diverse teams across sales engineering, alliances, and partner sales. His strong interpersonal skills and ability to forge strategic partnerships have been instrumental in securing key deals and driving growth.

For the past two and a half decades, Eric has honed his expertise in the APM and observability domain. He possesses a deep understanding of this critical space and excels at translating complex technical concepts into clear and concise language, effectively communicating the value proposition to customers and partners.

Today, as the Sr. Director of Solutions Engineering, Eric leads the Northeast and Financial Services vertical, leveraging his extensive experience to help organizations optimize their performance and gain valuable insights from their data.

Complexity is at the core of the modern data center, whether on premise or in the cloud. The fundamental data center components are straightforward: compute, memory, storage, and networking. But when you break those components up into thousands of pieces per applications, with applications that launch dynamically and live ephemerally, what you get is…complexity. AI can make sense of this environment by assisting in root-cause analysis and repair. For advanced data centers, predictive AI can also prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

Randall Brett has held senior management positions for over 25 years in software development and financial services. Currently, he is Head of Risk Technology at Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, a Quantitative Long/Short Equity hedge fund based in NYC. Previously, he was at Pine River Capital Management in NYC, most recently as Managing Director, Chief Technology Officer. His prior positions include: Senior Vice President, Application Development and Integration at Harvard Management Company, Boston; Director, Risk Technology at SAC Capital Management, and CTO at Askari Risk Management Systems/DSTi. Education: BA, English, Sociology, University of Colorado, 1980 PRM Certification, 2006 (Professional Risk Manager).