Ashwin Balakrishna
United Kingdom
Summary
I am an accomplished Banking, Payments and Fintech leader with nearly 23 years of experience in conceptualizing, building and market enabling platforms and products. I have experience of working with Big-Tech companies (Apple Inc.) and Global Top 10 financial institutions such as HSBC, American Express, Capital One and Citibank.
I bring a blend of business strategy, product lifecycle management, domain architecture, consultative sales and cross functional leadership to my roles allowing me to deliver highly impactful and strategic outcomes.
I specialize in areas of issuer processing , core lending and core banking platforms and card management systems. I have enabled the launch and optimization of marquee products such as Apple Pay Later, Apple Cash, HSBC Kinetic and Capital One's acquisition programs.
I have strong commercial acumen and have led large consulting portfolios with an annual turnover of $3 MN. I have also worked in enterprise platform companies to build and sell core banking solutions (Flexcube from Oracle) and enterprise fraud management solutions(Clari5).
Overview
23
23
years of professional experience
Work history
Senior Platforms manager and Product lead
Apple Inc.
London
04.2021 - 11.2025
- Led the assessment of issuer processing and program management platforms that support Apple's proprietary P2P offering. The evaluation is being done across 160+ capabilities, targeting scale exceeding 30 million MAU.
- Conceptualized and designed a strategic Directory platform in support of Apple's P2P, Payment Authentication and Identity management offerings.
- Championed the domain architecture and platform strategy for an enterprise scale Customer management, Issuer Processing and Core lending platform by working with 20+ cross-functional groups that enabled Apple to be a first-time balance sheet lender.
- Was Responsible for platform capability architecture with 70+ functional capabilities across 7 product types, serving over 100 million active customers and powering industry first propositions such as Apple Pay later and other proprietary Apple Pay offerings.
- Led Product, Operations, and Engineering teams to deliver and market enable features in areas of customer servicing & communications, financial bookkeeping, and credit management impacting over 6 million accounts and over 20 million Applications.
- Co-led product features focused on customer retention and repeat engagement to drive growth in net transaction margins by 50 basis points.
- Defined an innovative “Feature owner” model that was tailored to Apple's organizational culture resulting in over 20% reduction in Time to market for new features.
- Owned and managed the comprehensive platform roadmap and funnel management leading to 15-20% reduction in feature churn.
Principal consultant/Principal Product manager
Infosys Consulting
London
03.2012 - 03.2021
- Managed product development of the Android banking platform, facilitating launch of current accounts, domestic payments, and SME credit offerings, impacting over 100,000 SME customers in UK.
- Led product teams in revamp of Treasury, Tax, and financial reporting platforms for a global bank covering over 30 markets and 10 Business verticals.
- Developed transformation strategies, conducted business case assessments, and created program plans for card platform modernization initiatives, payment transformation programs, and new product launches.
- Senior member of the banking and payments practice with direct revenue ownership of over $3 MN/year.
- Directed a consulting portfolio including strategy consultants, product managers, business analysts, and program managers to drive strategy and transformation engagements for Top 5 Financial institutions.
Senior Manager - Product Management
Customer XPS Ltd
Bangalore
07.2011 - 03.2012
- Developed the blueprint for an enterprise fraud management platform, integrating 20 proprietary features and fraud detection patterns.
- Managed and directed the pre-sales and insider sales team, overseeing 30+ sales conversations and product demonstrations.
Consulting Manager and Lead Product Manager
Wipro Ltd
Richmond, US
06.2006 - 06.2011
- Senior member of the Payments and Cards practice responsible for leading consulting engagements and new business development. Successfully led engagements with an annual turnover of $1 MN consulting revenue.
- Led a product team that built an innovation platform to acquire credit card customers through affiliate organizations. Helped drive new customer acquisition of over 250 non-profit organizations and over 500K affiliate customers.
- Built an industry first bank account management(eBAM) and treasury management platform for corporate banks. This was one of the earliest solutions based on SWIFT’s innovative account management messaging solutions.
- Drove the migration of the entire credit and charge card portfolio from a legacy mainframe platform to TSYS TS2. Oversaw the successful conversion and operationalization of over 3 Million card accounts.
Product Manager/Associate Consultant
Oracle Financial Services Ltd.
Bangalore
06.2003 - 06.2006
- Product managed and market enabled over 30 core banking features in the areas of payments, commercial loans, commercial treasury deposits and Islamic financial instruments.
Education
Master of Business Administration (Executive MBA) - Finance
Hult International Business School
London 10.2023 - 08/2025
Master of Science - Computer Science
National Institute of Technology
India 07.2000 - 4 2003
Skills
- Product Lifecycle Management
- Cross-functional Leadership
- Product Roadmap and Strategy
- Market Research and Analysis
- Commercialization and Go To Market Enablement
- Enterprise Business Architecture
- Team management and mentoring
- Consultative sales and Business Development
- Consulting Portfolio management
Affiliations
- I am an avid cricket enthusiast and am involved in grass roots coaching and team management for young boys and girls at Bromley Cricket Club.
Volunteering
Coach and Manager for the U13 Cricket team at Bromley CC (2024 to Present)
Coach and Manager for the U11 Cricket team at Old Elthamians CC (2022 to 2024)
Strengths
- Product Innovation and design thinking Strategic and platforms first mindset
- Large scale business change management
- Cross functional leadership and mentorship
- Commercial acumen and go to market enablement Accountability and ownership
Timeline
Master of Business Administration (Executive MBA) - Finance
Hult International Business School
10.2023 - 08/2025
Senior Platforms manager and Product lead
Apple Inc.
04.2021 - 11.2025
Principal consultant/Principal Product manager
Infosys Consulting
03.2012 - 03.2021
Senior Manager - Product Management
Customer XPS Ltd
07.2011 - 03.2012
Consulting Manager and Lead Product Manager
Wipro Ltd
06.2006 - 06.2011
Product Manager/Associate Consultant
Oracle Financial Services Ltd.
06.2003 - 06.2006
Master of Science - Computer Science
National Institute of Technology
07.2000 - 4 2003