In this episode, we talk with Ian Ellis, Technology Strategist, Angel Investor, Venture Partner and Founder of the London Enterprise Tech Meetup. Ian Ellis is an experienced Technology Strategist who has driven C-level stakeholder engagement across some of world's leading organisations, including Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Prudential Financial, Microsoft and Bank of Ireland. His work involves aligning the high-level objectives for an organisation with its technology and business strategies, particularly related to how it drives practical innovation and also engagement with the external ecosystem of emerging technologies, investors and incumbent tech players.

Ian covers a lot of topics including generative AI and its potential applications, reporting requirements around ESG, and the need for thoughtful regulation, responsible innovation, and sustainable practices in the financial services industry.

3 Takeaways:

• Well placed regulations can help drive innovation
• Virtual advancements are having physical, global impacts
• FinOps is on the rise

Key Quotes: 

• “One of the things that people never think about is the importance of regulation. I think if you look at financial services and regulation in Europe, I think the European Union has been a very enabling force within the financial services ecosystem, with things like SEPA, PSD2, and all these types of regulations that drive, [or] actually force innovation a little bit. I think about regulation as a breathing thing, or a human thing is the wrong thing to way to describe it. But if you look across regions and how they regulate that has an impact on the innovation ecosystems in those regions.”
• “Actually, what the FinTech lab helped people realize is that the financial services industry and the ecosystem is, it's not a zero-sum game. There are winners and losers on all sides. So, if you disrupt a retail bank in say, you know, foreign currency, you're probably actually making money for an investment bank or a broker dealer on the other side. So, banks win somewhere else if they don't win on the front line in retail, they're winning in the backend and syndicating something.”
• “Because the thing with financial products [is] often [that] they're reasonably similar with nuances and differences on the edge, and sometimes those differences are important, sometimes they're not. So, working out how to think about that type of stuff in a way that makes sense. I think some of the challenges around AI and loading large volumes of data in is the time to market stuff. So that you need to think about the data being current. Nobody made money in a market looking at yesterday's data or the day before that.”
• “So, it's like everything ties back to physical somewhere. And the costs of some of these technologies are things that people don't think about enough in terms of sustainability.”

Ian Ellis

Technology Strategist, Angel Investor and Founder of the London Enterprise Tech Meetup

Bio:

Ian Ellis is an experienced technology strategist who has driven C-level stakeholder engagement across some of world's leading organisations, including Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Prudential Financial, Microsoft and Bank of Ireland. He has also been involved in Venture Capital, working for a period as a Venture Partner at an enterprise tech VC firm called Next47.

Typically his work involves aligning the high level objectives for an organisation with its technology and business strategies, particularly related to how it drives innovation and also engagement with the external ecosystem of emerging technologies, investors and incumbent tech players.

Ian co-founded the OperAngels syndicate of industry experts, focused predominantly on making angel investments in the enterprise tech and cyber security spaces. He is also the Founder of Enterprise Tech London (formerly the London Enterprise Tech Meetup) and was an entrepreneurial driving force behind the launch of Accenture’s FinTech Innovation Lab in London.

He holds a BA in Economics & Information Studies from University College Dublin and an MSc in Analysis, Design & Management of Information Systems (with distinction) from the London School of Economics.

Ian is based in London, but works globally, and has previously worked in London, New York and Dublin.

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For more information:

Connect with Ian on Linkedin

Check out the London Enterprise Technology Meetup at enterprisetech.london

About the Hosts

Matthew O'Neill is a husband, dad, geek and Industry Managing Director, Advanced Technology Group in the Office of the CTO at VMware.

You can find Matthew on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Brian Hayes is an audiophile, dad, builder of sheds, maker of mirth, world traveler and EMEA Financial Services Industry Lead at VMware.

You can find Brian on LinkedIn.