By Valentina Za
MILAN (Reuters) -Italy's UniCredit (LON:0RLS) has appointed a new head of digital to replace an executive hired two years ago from Chinese financial conglomerate Ping An Insurance, while also naming a new head of operations, it said on Tuesday.
The latest management changes under Chief Executive Andrea Orcel come as UniCredit embarks on a new phase of its digital transformation.
Banks around the world face a major challenge in having to shift their core IT infrastructure, which is made extremely complex by several layers of legacy systems that built up over the years, on to the cloud.
UniCredit said it would put Ali Khan, a cloud specialist who joins from consultancy PwC, in charge of digital and information
Currently based in New York, Khan is PwC's U.S. head for cloud and asset based solutions, with 23 years of experience in designing and coding computing systems.
UniCredit also said it was appointing veteran executive Gianfranco Bisagni as chief operating officer, replacing Bart Schlatmann who had taken the role only in October and is now leaving the group.
The changes will be effective at the end of September.
UniCredit said Khan knew UniCredit's current technology well and would help its move to a cloud and data driven approach.
Bisagni, currently head of central Europe, will return to a more central role to "partner with Khan".
Khan's predecessor joined UniCredit in July 2021, a few months after Orcel's arrival at the helm. Jingle had played a key role in the digital transformation of China's Ping An, a financial firm with 227 million retail customers where her team supported 360,000 employees and 100 subsidiaries.
A year later however, UniCredit hired former Monte dei Paschi di Siena and Nexi (BIT:NEXII) executive Giovanni Damiani as head of digital excellence to act as a deputy to Jingle.
UniCredit said Jingle wanted to work closer to her family, who are based in Britain and China, and would leave the bank, having laid the foundations of its digital turnaround.