You recently started working in a new position. How would you describe it?
My role is to develop Group-wide technology solutions to be used by all entities at BNP Paribas Group, so they can provide the best services to our customers and employees—all whilst continuing to roll out more new technologies!
Can you tell us about a project you are particularly excited about right now?
Jarvis, for example, is an app designed to provide 360-degree visibility of a project or department. The application is based on an idea from one of our employees, and it delivers a crucial advance in terms of management. In the past, we had to sift through a long list of various documents to find the essential details about a project—whether it be information about the application, the team, the organizational chart, the security pages, and so forth. Jarvis allows users to access all this information in just a click. It saves so much time! We used innovative tools to develop this app, notably a NoSQL database as well as the BNP Paribas private cloud to manage and store data.
Photo : Yazid Allal
What are your next challenges?
My main goal is to work closely with the Group’s production teams (IPS/FGAT) to offer even more “as a service” solutions, in order to support our employees and customers with the bank’s digital transformation and adopting new uses. With the help of my team, I’m also overseeing our efforts to upgrade our IT systems and ensure the stability of our platforms. Of course, these efforts include developing innovative services based on new tech, such as distributed technologies, robotics, Big Data, containers, AI, etc.
You manage a team of 200 people—do you have any management tips you would like to share?
There are no secret tricks. You have to share a strategic vision with your employees, have confidence in them and not hesitate to delegate! It’s also essential to listen to your users and keep up on the latest technologies, so you can guide your teams as they design innovative services. Next, you have to be bold enough to implement innovative working methods (such as the agile method) to facilitate project management, or the DevOps software development methodology to improve cohesion and collaboration between development and production teams.
You have to share a strategic vision with your employees, have confidence in them and not hesitate to delegate!
What is the most exciting part of your job?
No question about it—new technologies! I’m fascinated by the speed at which they are developing. For example, did you know that artificial intelligence can already recognize images more efficiently than people? It goes to show that the IT we have today has nothing in common with what we had 20 years ago! And five years from now, it will have changed yet again. We are living through an incredible time of transformation, with the emergence of new businesses, challenges, uses, etc. All these changes offer thrilling opportunities for young graduates and all our employees.
We are living through an incredible time of transformation, with the emergence of new businesses, challenges, uses, etc.
What is your motto?
Shoot for the moon to reach for the stars. In the context of my job, that translates to setting big ambitions for building the bank of tomorrow, even if it means advancing little by little. I think this mindset comes from my past experience as an entrepreneur. In fact, I started my own software company in the late 90s. That experience taught me never to give up and, above all, to always aim even higher!
