About Sameer Poonja

A startup strategist & design evangelist, an intrapreneur & an advocate of "Start with Why" - focusing on product innovation, design and fintech partnerships in the fields of Digital, Payments, Financial Inclusion and eCommerce. The evolution of each practice is augmented by HOW & WHAT by writing the strategy & driving customer growth in existing businesses. Previously, I was a senior advisor | partner level at Roland Berger leading in digital innovation in Financial Services, Banking & Payments. Prior, I was SVP Innovation Design, Partnerships and Payments for Gulf International Bank, covering GCC, UK & US Markets. GIB is 97% owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, with the residual owned by the Investment Authorities of the GCC. Being part of the leadership team and sat on the Group Board (Innovation), I lead the products, partnerships & payments strategy with innovative fintechs across the verticals of Retail Banking, Corporate Banking, Capital Management and Treasury. Further, I led the Innovation, Partnerships and Design at Visa for the CEMEA region which focused on unique payments & financial inclusion services for banks, airlines, FMCG, governments, MNOs, SMEs, hospitality and eCommerce. I was also part of Visa's fintech fast track program - mentoring, incubating and accelerating new entrants in the CEMEA region. Other successes include heading the solutions design function at Emirates Airlines where triple digit growth revenue was was achieved on digital channels & platforms in less than 4 years; creator of Visa Luxury Hotels (www.visaluxuryhotels.com) and part of the Visa card benefits; co-founder of Backyard Travel (www.backyardtravel.com) and part of Exo Travel, Asia's leading destination management company; and co-founder of Canada's first wireless vending machine with Coca Cola, Mastercard and Bell Canada. Recently, wrote the new growth strategy and implementation of the Entertainer. I bring a strong understanding & knowledge in the following specialities: # Product Strategy & Development - Digital | Mobile | eCommerce # Solutions Design - human centric design thinking & immersive prototyping # Digital Strategy and Market Responsive Design - personalization # Fintech Partnerships & Strategic Alliances # Customer Segmentation and Acquisition - Loyalty # Building customer insights' competencies - Business Intelligence # User Experience and Adaptable User Interfaces # Digital transformations, startups & turnarounds # Profitability P&L # Leadership & high performance team management