Arif Ahmed

Trainer at Informa Connect Academy

Trainer

Arif Ahmed is the SVP of Payments & Emerging Tech Innovation at U.S. Bank. His current area of focus is on digital transformation of payments business, building eco-system partnerships and developing/testing new ideas/opportunities in the digital payments/banking space. Prior to U.S. Bank, Arif worked at MPOWER Venture/Rev Worldwide –a VC & a group of fintech companies focused on emerging financial services– where he held various executive roles ranging from heading product and technology for the global prepaid card business to heading individual portfolio companies. Prior to MPOWER, Arif was the Group Head of Strategic Initiatives & Business Development at United Bank, one of the largest banks in Pakistan, with international footprint. In these roles, he has been responsible for a number of key transformation initiatives –both in the U.S. and internationally—such as, launch of a major online banking service; launch of one of the first mobile P2P & branchless banking services; launch of one of the first digital cross-border remittance products; launch of multiple payment card issuance & acceptance products—in several countries; and the launch of Apple, Samsung & Android Pay at U.S. Bank. Besides his focus on emerging payments, Arif is also conducting research in emerging AI & machine learning technologies for UX personalization, fraud risk management, contextualized advisory and digital assistants. Prior to these roles, Arif held various technical and strategy & business development roles at Motorola and 3Com. Arif has an MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and obtained his B.S. and PhD. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma.