Banco Santander has given executive positions to three technologists.
In Brief:
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R. Martin Chávez, previously of Goldman Sachs, is an independent director. He’ll look at risk, regulation and compliance as well as innovation.
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Sebastian Gunningham, previously SVO at Amazon will be chairman of Santander Consumer Finance and Vice Chairman of Openbank.
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Francisco D’Souza, co-founder of Cognizant, is now group strategic advisor for the development of Santander Global Platform.
What does this mean?
The appointment of three leading technologists is an important step on Santader’s digital transformation journey. The bank has praised the new executives’ “extensive experience”.
Santander has been rethinking its approach as it pours cash into a digital transformation project to retain its customers amid the rise of FinTech challengers and changing expectations.
Earlier this year it announced it would hire 3,000 IT professionals, and last year it restructured to bring together an entire digital services unit.
