Friday, 26 April 2024
Former MAS chief data officer joins UnionBank’s advisory board
Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) recently appointed David Hardoon as its senior advisor for data and artificial intelligence (D & AI), reporting to the bank’s president and chief executive officer Edwin R. Bautista.
The announcement was made as UnionBank continues to see a surge in digital transactions among customers as a result of evolving consumer behaviour amplified by the current enhanced community quarantine. These transactions mean an increased volume of data running through the bank’s systems, which data science and AI can unlock to allow the bank to serve its customers better.
“Leveraging data and AI is a key driver to our next-level of digital transformation as we continue to put the customer – both individuals and businesses – at the heart of our business,” Edwin R. Bautista said in a statement.
Hardoon replaces John Januszczak, who is now focused in his role as president and CEO of UBX, UnionBank’s fintech subsidiary. Hardoon is a graduate of Royal Halloway, the University of London with first-class honours BSc in computer science and AI, and a PhD holder in machine Learning from the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science in United Kingdom.
Prior to his appointment at UnionBank, Hardoon was the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s first appointed chief data officer and head of the data analytics group, and subsequently MAS’ special advisor on artificial intelligence. In these roles, he led the development of the AI strategy both for MAS and Singapore’s financial sector as well as efforts in promoting open cross-border data flow.
In addition, he led and established the ASEAN advanced analytics of Ernst & Young Advisory Singapore as director of EY data, IT advisory services and co-founded Azendian Solutions Pte Ltd, an information management and data science consultancy between 2013 and 2017. He was also the head of analytics at SAS Institute Ltd Singapore from 2010 to 2013.
As senior advisor for data and AI, Hardoon will be working with various centres, groups and units to reinforce data infrastructure and governance, behavior modelling, machine learning and AI capabilities as well as applications in the bank and its parent company Aboitiz Equity Ventures.
Aside from his role with the bank, Hardoon is concurrently the senior advisor for AI to Singapore's Corrupt Investigation Practices Bureau and senior advisor for data science to Singapore's Central Provident Fund Board.
Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker
