My interest in AI started as a teenager reading Isaac Asimov’s robot stories, about intelligent humanoid robots coexisting alongside humans in a futuristic world. This led to a PhD in AI, and multiple engagements in the academia (researcher at Carnegie Mellon University), and the private sector; I built one of the earliest customer service chatbots for ftd.com in the early 2000’s, for Novator, a pioneer in Electronic Commerce.
I joined Scotiabank eight years ago and became CAIO two years ago. My current role is two-fold: locating the right use cases for AI at the bank and positioning the bank to deliver on them. I have spent nearly a decade at the bank, evolving through successive roles from Senior Data Scientist to leading AI strategy across corporate functions, global teams, and now enterprise wide. My remit spans applied AI, machine learning solutions, and analytics innovation at scale in a highly regulated environment.
I am a technically fluent and commercially grounded AI leader with deep roots in software engineering, search technologies, and machine learning.