Beyond Bitcoin: Exploring Blockchain in the Enterprise
"While blockchain receives most of the attention for its role in cryptocurrencies, enterprises across a variety of verticals are quickly adopting the distributed ledger for its efficiency, transparency and security. This session will dive into the disruptive technology’s benefits in business operations and security, and look at the use cases from the perspective of pharmaceutical and financial experts. Speakers include:
Niraj Patel – CIO, Lending Platforms, IBM
Niraj Patel is a senior business executive with a successful track record of uncovering a corporation’s hidden value and opportunities to create long-term innovative solutions to increase market share profitability. His successful plans have included strategies to address organic growth, in-organic growth through acquisitions, investments, technology solutions and exit strategies.
Mr. Patel is current the CIO of IBM’s Lending Platforms and an executive member of the innovative IBM Mortgage Team specializing in delivering Watson, cognitive machine learning solutions, the cloud, big data, blockchain and evidence-based decisioning to transform the mortgage industry. Mr. Patel Co-Founded ISGN, is a Partner at Witmer LLC and Managing Director for the Musser Consulting Group. Mr. Patel works closely with diverse clients including single product firms, medium size firms targeting rapid growth and international conglomerates. Previously Mr. Patel served as a founding member and Executive Vice President/CIO for GMAC Commercial Mortgage. As a member of the Executive Committee, he was a key contributor to the organization’s international growth by consistently delivering double-digit net income growth reaching as high as $341.6 million annually, increasing loan originations from $2 to $29.9 billion, building loan servicing from $5 to $276 billion.
Recognized as an award winning innovator and viewed as one of the leading technologists of his generation, Mr. Patel serves on numerous boards and panels, speaks at industry conferences and has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal and numerous commercial real estate, finance and technology publications. Mr. Patel’s community and professional memberships have included the Microsoft Executive Circle; Eastern Technology Council; the Board of Advisors of the Marketing Center at the Temple University Fox School of Business; the NPower CIO Advisory Council. His executive board experience includes: the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) Board of Directors, EnableUS and MortgageRamp. Mr. Patel has a B.B.A. in Finance and a M.I.S. from Temple University.
Don Finley – CEO, FINdustries
Don is the CEO of FINdustries leading a team of engineers, product managers, and designers who build enterprise applications utilizing cutting edge technologies including machine learning and blockchain. Significant expertise leading teams in diverse industries, including financial services, vending, digital signage, and IoT. Well versed in defining product strategy, leading teams, and driving cultural adoption of Agile and lean methodologies. Passionate about bringing products to market that delight customers. Extensive background with B2B service and software model, providing client-facing software-as-a-service and internal service operations software in the delivery of business value. Applies product management best practices in alignment with software development frameworks. Strong financial acumen and proven experience optimizing budgets, developing business plans and measuring ROI. Demonstrated experience managing large, complex product groups across multiple SBUs with individual urgent market demands, business strategies, and growth aspirations."