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Serial Intrapreneur

Serial Intrapreneur is about the leaders who battle the status quo inside their own companies to innovate and drive change.

JP Nicols

Jill Castilla went home to save her family bank. She saw first hand how a successful, trustworthy institution could be brought to the brink of ruin. Working from a strong sense of duty, and trying to keep a sense of humor, she worked through all the problems at Citizen Edmonds Bank in Edmonds Oklahoma.

It wasn't her first foray with unpleasant work.  Frustrated with a lack of college funds, she signed up for the army and was part of the US Army Corps of Engineers. She then persevered through several challenges to get her degree and eventually ended up working her way up in the financial world. When her step-dad called and asked her to come home and save the family bank, she left a better paying position with a lot more obvious potential, and went back with her family to help.   It was a dirty, difficult job. But that same perseverance that took her through the army and got her through school came in handy. Eventually, she was named American Banker Community Banker of the Year and led Citizen Edmonds Bank to be one of the most successful, forward thinking, and innovative banks in the country.

Produced by Rachel Morrissey, Senior Producer, Provoke Media

Jill Castilla: Saving a Bank

Aaron Phethean has always liked to tinker.  He grew up in a relatively small town and he spent a lot of his childhood building his own projects from spare parts-  bikes, rockets, etc.   He was given time to think, identify problems, and come up with solutions.  That is basically what his job at Temenos is.  And in that job thinking is an action verb.   Thinking through the logic of the actions, thinking through the process, is part of the process or creating new, innovative, and important changes inside and outside a company.

As the director of the Temenos Marketplace, he continues to build a project he envisioned six years ago.  The Temenos Marketplace is Temenos platform for fintechs- allowing them an easier route to market and creating a place where banks can find the technology they need to scale their innovation.   Aaron proposed the marketplace 6 years ago, realizing that having an "app store" that banks could go to would be an ideal solution for the burgeoning fintech startups and for the banks looking for trusted solutions.
Bio:
Aaron Phethean is a Product Director for Temenos, with responsibility for all activities around APIs and Open Banking. Since joining Temenos in 2006, he has met with 100’s of banks and been deeply involved in dozens of product launches, core banking renovation projects, and digital channel initiatives.

Aaron is a keen innovator and regularly contributes to open source projects, blogs, and knows first-hand what is takes to make the successful leap from idea to execution. When he’s not trying to build great software, you’ll find Aaron riding mountain bikes in extreme conditions and often at eye watering speeds.

Aaron is originally from New Zealand, currently based in London.

 

Produced by Rachel Morrissey, Senior Producer, Provoke Media

Aaron Phethean: Thinking is action

Megan Caywood's strength is her ability to see 3 moves ahead.  As Chief Platform Officer of Starling Bank, she is helping to build one of the most innovative new banks in the UK.    Starling bank believes in building a strong core, and then extending it's platform to fintech's who bring their strengths to the table and benefit customers and employees.   Megan oversees that platform, helping to build a strong core, and making sure that the components of the platform can play well together.    Building the model for future banks as part of someone else's vision wasn't necessarily her first plan, but when she realized that Ann Boden and she shared a special vision for really changing the nature of banking, and re-empowering customers- she has taken all her experience at companies like Intuit and Xero to realize that vision.
Bio:
Megan is Chief Platform Officer, leading its design, development and the API strategy. Prior to joining Starling, Megan worked in technology in San Francisco, heading up product development at Intuit and Xero, two of the world’s largest financial technology companies.

Megan was working towards a PhD in cognitive science when she co-founded a technology business with a friend. She fell in love with building tech products and the creative, collaborative approach of a cross-functional team, so decided to pursue this at Intuit.

Megan joined Starling because it has the tech, the vision and the world class team to do something truly notable – disrupt the banking industry in the fintech capital of the world, by building a full stack bank from scratch with the vision for the world’s best current account.

If she wasn’t at Starling, Megan would be working on building her own fintech company.

Follow Megan on Twitter here

 

Produced by Rachel Morrissey, Senior Producer, Provoke Media

Megan Caywood: Platform Builder

As Chief Marketing Officer for Diebold Nixdorf, Devon Watson has a restlessness for innovation, for failing fast, picking up, and creating circumstances of growth and ingenuity.

It seems a bit of an odd fit for a company founded in 1859 in the Canton, Ohio.   When Diebold hired Devon, he had a history of constant movement as a perpetual "accidental" entrepreneur and venture capitalist.   He made his name with some bold moves that got his feet in the door, and he has trusted that sense of constant propulsion to guide him through many opportunities.   It turns out, that is exactly the kind of "Intrapreneur" that Diebold was looking for.

As any company that has survived 15 to 150 years knows, constant reinvention is part of staying relevant.   With people like Devon, Diebold has purposely sought out the reverent wrecking ball that respects the name and loves the process of change.
Bio:
"Devon Watson (@WatsonDevon) currently serves as the chief marketing officer for Diebold Nixdorf. In this role, he is responsible for leading the company’s global marketing operations and strategy, focusing on driving growth through industry thought leadership and effective customer-facing campaigns.

Watson joined Diebold in 2012 as a senior director leading product management and innovation. In this role, he was responsible for product strategy and proactively bringing new solutions and collaborative innovation to clients around the world. Most recently, he served as vice president, software strategy and operations, through the acquisitions of Phoenix Software and Wincor Nixdorf.

Prior to joining Diebold, Watson was an early team member at Apprenda, a leading cloud software and services company, where he focused on business development and go-to-market. He also previously served as a vice president at Primary Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm, where he focused on investments in the software and technology-enabled services sectors. Prior to entering the venture capital industry, Watson co-founded a software-as-a-service (SaaS) analytics start-up and worked in technology consulting."

 

Produced by Rachel Morrissey, Senior Producer, Provoke Media

Devon Watson- No Patience for Standing Still

Dion Lisle didn't start out in financial services.  He didn't start out in tech either.   So, how did he become the head of Fintech at Cap Gemeni?    How did he build a resume full of both start-up, entrepreneurial experience, and experience inside large organizations?  And when did he lose all his hair?  :)

We answer some of those questions in this episode of Serial Intrapreneur.

Starting out as a cook, Dion was a natural for management.  He hired people who knew what he didn't.  He paid close attention to the changes that were happening in the world.  And he was never afraid to take the leap to try something new.   All of these are only part of the reason he is the successful Intrapreneur he is today.

 

Produced by Rachel Morrissey, Senior Producer, Provoke Media

Dion Lisle- Bankers Rosetta Stone

Duena Blomstrom is not known for having patience with inaction.  She likes to make decisions and move forward.  But she does have a keenly practical side and a  deep curiosity for what makes people work inside of organizations.  She uses her energy, drive, and insight to make big things happen in banking (an industry that could make a snail impatient).

As the Head of Growth at Temenos Marketplace, Duena is driving a big new innovative engine of Fintech change to help move banking toward the customer centric, fast, safe, smart, and personal experience it should be.

On top of her work at Temenos, she is busy writing her book on Emotional Banking.  Based on her very popular blog, it tells banks how to rebrand.  It addresses key shifts that banks need to implement to make them responsive to customer behavior and innovation.

Produced by Rachel Morrissey, Senior Producer, Provoke Media

Duena Blomstrom- Get Shit Done

Serial Intrapreneur is about the leaders who battle the status quo inside their own companies to innovate and drive change.

We are so pleased to introduce the newest podcast in Provoke Media, the parent company of Breaking Banks- SERIAL INTRAPRENEUR with host JP Nicols.
JP has been consulting and watching the innovation in Fintech for a long time, and he knows the the hardest innovation can be transforming a giant company from within. The effort of those inside these stalwarts to move ahead, even cannibalizing some of their current cash cows in order to make room for the real technologies and services of tomorrow can be brutal, frustrating and thankless work. As JP says in the intro- the “business prevention departments” always seem to innoculate against healthy change until it is too late. He wanted to tell the story of those working with in.

This is episode 1, where he talks to Intrapreneur gone Entrepreneur Anne Boden, the CEO of Starling Bank. Their conversation is a do not miss for the Fintech world!

 

Produced by Rachel Morrissey, Senior Producer, Provoke Media