The Contextual, Composable, Cloud Technology Conversations

Arun Jain is the Founder of Polaris Group and Chairman and Managing Director of Intellect Design Arena Limited. Intellect is a specialist in applying true Digital Technologies, the world’s first full spectrum Banking and Insurance Technology product company, across Consumer Banking, Central Banking, Transaction Banking, Risk, Treasury and Markets and Insurance. With revenues of INR 1351 Crores (USD 191 Mn) with an employee base of over 4000, Intellect powers over 240 leading Banks and Financial Institutions around the globe with its suite of Products. IBS Intelligence, a leading global research firm in its 2020 Sales League Table ranked Intellect # 1 in Retail Banking and Wholesale Banking (Transaction Banking).

Arun commenced his entrepreneurial journey by setting up Nucleus Software Workshop in 1986. In 1993, he founded Polaris Software Lab, which recorded a CAGR of over 100% during the seven year period 1993-2000. This path of deep domain expertise, vision and planning began in 1993, with just $250 and a dream. His journey was guided by two strong beliefs – (1) ordinary people coming together to achieve extraordinary results (2) the power of the organizational subconscious in realizing the vision. Intellect Design Arena Limited is his third venture, in pursuit of his vision to make India the IP Capital towards the next growth wave for the IT Industry. Arun’s passion to create a technology product power house from India made Intellect a reality.

As an evangelist of Design Thinking, his brainchild – FinTech 8012, the World’s First Design Center at Chennai dedicated to Financial Technology came into being. An avid design practitioner, Arun also evangelizes Design Thinking through public workshops, branded as UnMukt. It is one-of-its-kind flagship workshop where participants explore and immerse in Design Thinking. With the constant drive to better the community around him, he instituted Mission Samriddhi – a social impact enterprise dedicated to holistic human development in India through the unique philosophy of Celebrate-Connect-Catalyse; Ullas Trust – a social impact organisation working towards igniting less privileged young minds into realizing their true potential;
School of Design Thinking – focusing on shaping thinking of young minds and professional through Design The Thinking™ philosophy. He is passionate about Design Thinking as a science to create the biggest impact on individual and organisational performance.

Arun has been nominated as the Chairperson of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Information Technology Ranchi, Jharkhand, India by Hon’ble President of India, for a period of three years with effect from 2nd Sept 2020. He is entrusted with the responsibility of the Chief Mentor of the FinTech Centre of Excellence at STPI, Chennai setup by Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Govt. of India in association with the ELCOT, Govt. of Tamil Nadu. He holds/ has held prestigious positions in various other forums like National Software Product Mission (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology), National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Madras Management Association (MMA), and the Indo American Chamber of Commerce (IACC).

He was bestowed with Dronacharya Award 2019 by TiECON Chennai. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award to Arun at the India’s premier ICT Event, Connect 2016. He was also conferred the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the 4th edition of the Design Thinking Conclave & Awards 2018. Arun has received multiple awards including Rotary Club’s “For The Sake of Honour Award”, Lions Clubs International award for “Youth Empowerment”, INDO ASEAN Business Initiative Award, ICICI Venture – CII Connect Entrepreneur Award, Visionary of India 2014-15, amongst others in recognition of his contribution to the Industry and the Society. His contribution was recognized by the Times Group, with an award and a feature in a book titled ‘Pathfinders’ that lauds the achievements of extraordinary personalities in the IT & ITES industry.

A social engineer by nature, Arun has been working towards creating a better community. Ullas Trust, founded in 1997, with the purpose of igniting young minds and guiding them to realizing their dreams, has since reached out to over 2,60,000 children from the economically challenged sections of Government, Municipal and Aided Schools. This brainchild of Arun provides vital professional skills to adolescent children across the country nurturing the “Can Do” spirit among the young minds.

Arun holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering.

Manish Maakan is Chief Executive Officer of  iGTB, the global transaction banking division of Intellect Design Arena Limited, based in iGTB’s headquarters in London. He has occupied the role since its formation in May 2013.

Manish has passionately built award-winning products led by high-performing innovation teams to enable his vision of Contextual Banking – ensuring banks genuinely help their customers in real time, bringing the same level of contextual awareness and support consumers experience in other field.

During the last seven years, Manish has led iGTB to being the most-preferred partner of choice for Digital Transaction Banking transformation programs globally. iGTB is currently  trusted by 88 of the best global Corporate Banks across 55 countries, and is rated # 1 in different categories by 12 analysts and most recently as # 1 in Wholesale Banking-Transaction Banking  by IBS.

Manish joined Polaris FT in 2007 and led its Product business.   The product was called Intellect, and that name gave birth to our current organisation’s name. He was a key architect in designing the growth strategy, building the business and getting the team in place in its founding years till it reached $ 75M revenue.

Manish previously served in key leadership roles, leading transformations as CIO at GE Money, setting up the Technology centre for Whirlpool’s India business, and as a management consultant at E&Y, building financial solutions for EMI Records, building on his earlier experience working as a technologist in IBM and several other IT companies in the US.

Manish’s impressive career spans nearly three decades .  He brings a differentiated design-thinking approach to innovation, growth and complexity reduction in business. He has also been a recipient of many prestigious awards during his career.  Always softly spoken, Manish routinely reframes problems, expands his team’s thinking and keeps focus on achievement of ambitious goals.

He has been inspired by two individuals who, as he puts it, “dared to dream big!” in the mid-Eighties: Jack Welch and Michael Jordan.  Their mantras combine to sum up Manish’s guiding professional and emotional lodestones:

• Be number one or number two – or get out of the business!
• I believe I can fly!

Rajesh is the Chief Executive Officer of Global Consumer Banking at Intellect Design Arena Limited.

Rajesh is a seasoned retail banking executive with an in-depth understanding of all aspects of retail banking including retail distribution, digital banking, branch banking with special expertise in credit cards, Personal loans and other unsecured lending. He has strong P&L focus having done large P&L roles for close to 15 years.

Prior to joining Intellect, Rajesh was Chief Executive Officer, American Express, India, where he was responsible for International Consumer & Small Business Services in India as well as for providing leadership to the AEBC Country Executive Team. He is credited for turning around the cards business and setting the business for growth in India. Before AMEX, he worked with Citibank for 19 years across multiple geographies in various consumer banking roles with the last 10 years spent in managing large teams and product and country P&L’s.

He has strong strategic thinking capability with special skills and experience of ramping up start-up businesses and has a deep retail customer insight. He is well networked in the BFSI space across India, Asia, Middle East and Europe.

Rajesh holds an MBA with specialisation in Marketing and Finance from XLRI, Jamshedpur and is a Gold Medalist BE (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani.

Banesh is a Fintech services veteran and Pioneer in Technology & Operations management, having developed and implemented global strategies for executing digital capabilities and servicing of clients. He has managed senior global responsibilities in Operations and Technology for over 32 years, of which 23 years were in Citibank where he was responsible for servicing clients in 55+ international markets. During these years he pioneered the creation of several global Centers of Excellence for Operations and Technology that included implementing Digital Services. He was a member of Citigroup Global Consumer Planning Group, Citigroup Global Information Technology council, Citigroup Global Operations Council.

In his last role he was a member of the Executive Committee and head of the Technology and Operations Group for one of Thailand’s leading Universal banking groups- Siam Commercial Bank. He was a Senior Advisor with Boston Consulting Group and is engaged as a Fintech investor and a Fintech Fund in the UK.