Elias Ghanem is the Global Head of Capgemini’s Financial Services Market Intelligence Group. He leads Financial Services’ thought leadership initiatives, including the respected annual World Reports series and Trends books. He oversees a team of strategy consultants and sector analysts, delivering a diverse range of market research to help Capgemini’s clients – worldwide − address complex needs related to the future of Banking, Capital Markets, and Insurance.
Elias joined Capgemini in 2017 as the FinTech Lead and Chief New Technologies Officer (CnTO) for Continental Europe, with the mission to bridge the digital transformation gap and challenges between FS institutions and the startup ecosystem. His focus has been on engaging with FinTechs and InsurTechs scaleups to actively and efficiently embed them with Capgemini Financial Services clients. For that purpose, he launched the Capgemini ScaleUp Qualification program and an Innovation as a Service with ScaleUps offering, a unique, end-to-end approach to maximize collaboration at scale.
Before Capgemini, Elias gained significant expertise in effective collaboration between banks and startups, having launched Telr (www.telr.com) in Singapore and Dubai, an online Payment Gateway, which earned the “2014 Startup of the Year” distinction in the Middle East. Previously, Elias served at Visa and PayPal with roles spanning from APAC Head of Visa Consulting to PayPal regional MD in Southeast Asia & India, and the Middle East.
A seasoned professional with more than 25 years of banking and payments experience, Elias advises several high-growth and disruptive startups in Washington, Singapore, Barcelona, Beirut, and Dubai, is an angel investor and has held BOD, and chairman roles.
He represented and delivered on many global forums and events, including Money 2020, the Singapore FinTech Festival, and the London Institute of Banking and Finance (LIBF). He has been an active contributor to major global media houses. He is a certified “Scaling Up” coach, an inspiring thought leader, an enthusiastic speaker on the future of Banking, Wealth Management, Payments, and Insurance in mature and emerging markets.
Elias holds an Executive Education degree from INSEAD (Singapore), a master’s degree from the University of Miami (MBA), and a bachelor’s degree from IPAG Business School (Paris – Corporate Finance).
Elias has lived in the US, LATAM, APAC, Middle East, and Europe and is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic.
His base is Capgemini’s Paris, France headquarters.