FINASTRA
Finastra ’ s Chief Information Officer , Russ Soper , reveals how ‘ Open Finance ’ benefits it ’ s people , customers and the Finance Industry
Managing the enterprise systems for Finastra ’ s global workforce of 9,000 employees , as well as overseeing the hosting and operations of its client-facing technology , is just part of the daily remit of Russ Soper , the company ’ s CIO . But , with an extensive career in technology in the Financial Services sector , Soper brings the skills and mindset required for such a role .
Soper , who began his role with Finastra three years ago , is no stranger to business-critical operations in the world of banking and finance . He began his career as a developer , moving into trading floor support for the Investment Banking arm of ABN AMRO where he grew his expertise in mission-critical Financial Services technologies .
From there , he progressed through a variety of high-profile technology roles , serving as Americas CIO and later as Global Head of Infrastructure from London , UK , before moving to JPMorgan ( JPM ) to launch its Critical Infrastructure Operations capability ; a program focused on driving “ always on ” capability for JPM ’ s most critical platforms .
Excited by its vision of the future of Open Finance , he joined Finastra in 2018 as Global Head of IT Operations , before his promotion to CIO in May 2019 .
Russ ’ s keen interest in harnessing technology to deliver better outcomes has seen him become a passionate advocate for technology for good . He is a regular speaker on how innovation can be leveraged to go beyond improving efficiency , collaboration and productivity , to progress
emotional , physical and social wellbeing .
86 January 2022