The Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE) is building the future of online education in finance with an Edtech platform that aims to help finance professionals adapt to a rapidly changing industry.

Today, CFTE announces the nomination of four new board members, all with outstanding credentials and recognised world-leaders in their respective fields. Christophe Chazot, Global Head of Innovation at HSBC (currently on sabbatical) and Vincent Desnot, CEO of Teach on Mars, will join the academic board. Ericson Chan, Head of Ping An Technology, and Ronit Ghose, Global Head of Banks Research at Citi, will join the advisory board. As a collective, the board will enhance CFTE’s capabilities to deliver on its mission to provide professionals with a lifelong education in finance.

On working together with the new board members, Tram Anh Nguyen, CFTE’s Co-founder said, “In a fast changing world, we need to learn from the experience of the best industry experts. Our board is composed of exceptional people who are themselves at the leading edge in their industries, and will help CFTE access a worldwide pool of expertise.” Huy Nguyen Trieu, CEO of The Disruptive Group and Co-founder of CFTE added, “Finance is being transformed by technology, and we need to learn from new business models. I am delighted that our new board members bring together their very diverse experience from some of the largest organisations in the world, as well as technology companies and start-ups.”

The work Christophe undertakes at HSBC puts him at the forefront of transformation in banking. Christophe has a wealth of experience across banking, technology and innovation from his time founding his own Fintech start-up, Softbank in 1987, to working as Global Head of FX and Global Head of Equities in the largest banks.

As Global Head of Banks Research at one of the leading banks in the world, Ronit has a deep understanding of the overlying market trends affecting the financial sector, Ronit is the lead author of Citi’s Digital Disruption reports which form part of Citi’s thought-leadership series entitled Global Perspectives and Solutions. The report analyses the impact of technology in banking and has been downloaded more than 200 thousand times.

Through their respective experience, both Christophe and Ronit will bring an eagle eye’s perspective on the future of the financial sector that will direct CFTE’s business strategy and curriculum development.

As head of Ping An Technology, Ericson runs the high-tech core that helped Ping An become one of the largest integrated finance groups in the world. He has the unique experience of implementing large-scale innovations in global financial institutions.

Vincent is an e-learning entrepreneur CEO of Teach On Mars. Through ideation to product development to implementation, he has a broad spectrum of experience in launching e-learning companies that have technology and people at its core.

Together, Ericson and Vincent will add significant capabilities to CFTE. Their experience will help CFTE to scale its Edtech platform to reach a global audience and ensure the technological infrastructure that underpins the platform is innovative and user friendly.

More information and quotes about the board members

Ronit Ghose has been an equity analyst at Citi for 20 years. His analytical mind-set and critical thinking on current trends affecting finance saw him author the most downloaded Fintech research paper in history. A graduate of Oxford University, Ghose added, “Technological disruption will transform all industries beyond what we can currently imagine. I’m excited for the opportunity to draw on my extensive research in the digital disruption space to advise the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship on the future of Edtech, something that will become crucial for the next generation of finance professionals.”

Christophe Chazot’s interest in Fintech dates back to 1987, when he founded Softinvest. The company specialised in technology for the financial services and developed the Topval Option Pricing and Visualisation Software. He made a successful exit by selling the software to the French Stock Exchange. Christophe has enjoyed a career spanning 20 years across all the major asset classes in capital markets, from Global Head of FX Options at Banker’s Trust to co-Head of Global Equities and Global Head of Equity Derivatives at HSBC. In 2014 Christophe has created HSBC’s innovation strategy and investments teams. “Education helps individuals and companies to look at the future confidently,” said Christophe on joining CFTE.

Ericson Chan is the head of Ping An technology, the largest integrated finance group in China, a former CIO at Standard Chartered, and is a mentor for the SuperCharger Fintech Accelerator program. He helps a number of Fintech start-ups to scale their operations, and has led the development of Fintech start-ups within Ping An Group. Recently, he worked with Shenzhen government to set up a Fintech accelerator program in China. He also has an interest on education and is an advisory board member for the university of Wisconsin Business School. A Fintech advocate who believes in the positive impact technology can have on the finance sector, Chan said, “Tomorrow’s finance will be very different from today, with the proliferation of AI technology and disruptive business models. A gap on today’s training approach and contents can be seen easily seen easily. I am glad to see CFTE taking the lead to fill this widening gap and to arm our troops for the future.”

Vincent Desnot founded France’s first e-learning company Epistema, and after a successful exit, spent the next 7 years honing his skills in the digital and mobile learning space. This served as the foundation for his latest venture Teach On Mars, which enables organizations to successfully implement new training programs in a mobile first environment – and after 2 years was already used by 200,000 users. Vincent is passionate about leveraging the power technology in education and added, “CFTE has the potential to be a global leader of digital education in Finance. I believe this kind of next gen market actor has the power of disrupting the professional education business.”

Full list of board members:

Prof Douglas Arner (Kerry Holdings Professor in Law at the University of Hong Kong),

Janos Barberis (founder of SuperCharger Fintech Accelerator Hong Kong)

Claire Calmejane (Director of Innovation and Digital Centre of Excellence, Lloyds Banking Group),

Ericson Chan (Head of Ping An Technology),

Christophe Chazot (Global Head of Innovation at HSBC, currently on sabbatical),

Gillian Cribbs (Executive Coach at London Business School and founder of Credo Consulting),

Vincent Desnot (CEO of Teach On Mars),

Ronit Ghose (Global Head of Bank Research at Citi),

Sylvain Kalache (Co-founder at Holberton School),

Prof Andrei Kirilenko (Director of the Centre for Global Finance and Technology at Imperial College) and

Prof Karim Lakhani (Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School).

About CFTE

CFTE is a new EdTech platform for the finance industry. It utilises mobile learning and adaptive learning technologies to deliver courses aimed at up-skilling finance professionals in a rapidly changing industry. The curriculum is being designed with inputs from an exceptional advisory and academic board and through consultations with banking institutions, start-ups, Fintech experts, and technology leaders. The first modules go live in September and will incorporate online modules and in-class learning delivered by world-class experts.