Amitabh Saxena

Managing Director and Head of Product

Digital Disruptions · Washington, DC

Present

Founded and currently lead a boutique innovation consultancy that fuses the best of strategy and design approaches for end-to-end fintech development in advanced and emerging markets. We’ve been trusted by senior executives at top-tier clients from both private sector (e.g., Vodafone M-Pesa, Mastercard Labs, Amazon, Ecobank, BRAC, VC-backed start-ups) and public sector (e.g., World Economic Forum, GSMA, World Bank, United Nations, International Monetary Fund), in ~25 markets in the US, Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. We help clients with designing and implementing new (or revamped) products, services, experiences and business models in the fintech sector, by applying and adapting best-in-class innovation concepts, methodologies, and tools. We also conduct customized research (thought-leadership pieces and white papers) and training on a variety of innovation topics, including on AI. Please visit www.digital-disruptions.com for more about us, our services, and…

Founder

Tokenized Transformation · Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Present

I founded Tokenized Transformation to help organizations understand and implement two of the most consequential technologies emerging today: 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘀 for global payments and commerce, and 𝗔𝗜 for user delight and internal productivity across sectors. These leverage domain knowledge (in fintech, for stablecoins) and functional expertise (in product innovation, for AI) I have acquired over the last 20+ years. While “tokenization” has distinct meanings in crypto and AI, the core principle is the same: abstracting complexity into modular, transferable units — whether currency, data, or knowledge. Much like digital transformation reshaped the first two decades of this century, I believe the next era will be defined by 𝘵𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 in both industry and government.

Adjunct Faculty, Mba Program (+Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship)

University of Maryland

Designed syllabus from scratch and taugt MBA-level summer course on Innovation and Product Development (BUMK758) for 5 years, from 2015 to 2019. I placed particular emphasis not only on 'tactical execution' but also the principles underpinning the methodologies, so that students can decide for themselves in which cases to use them, and how best to do so. Topics include: - Design Thinking - Behavioral Design - Value Proposition and Jobs-To-Be-Done - Business Models - Lean Start-Up - Agile and Stage-Gate Methodologies - Design of Experiment - Product Diffusion and Technology Adoption - Innovator's Dilemma and Disruptive Innovation - Open Innovation - Organizational Design I also taught Design Thinking and Lean Start-Up classes part-time at University of Maryland's Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (innovation.umd.edu/about) for several semesters.

Vice-President Mobile Money, Emerging Products

Mastercard · Miami, Florida and Latin America (mainly Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Argentina)

Regional head for Mobile Money for the Latin America and Caribbean region. Product role included defining regional strategy, constructing go-to-market plans for individual countries, and supporting in-country implementation. Engaged banks, mobile operators, retailers, governments, and technology vendors to create multi-sector, cross-industry alliances to build open, interoperable mobile payment ecosystem. Provided hands-on support delivering everything from revenue models and customer experience flows, to strategic partnership agreements and technology requirements. Supported the Mastercard-Telefonica JV in its relaunch efforts, created product design for the winning TIM-Caixa bid in Brazil, designed mobile payments product concept with Coca-Cola, and led mobile acceptance project to target underserved merchants.

Consultant, Mobile Money Team

GSMA · London, United Kingdom

Formulated best practices on structuring strategic alliances between banks and mobile operators to offer mobile money (report published in Jan 2011) by the GSMA, which represents the interests of over 800 mobile operators. Designed and led the team’s first “consulting-like” engagement for a leading African mobile operator, performing qualitative and quantitative analysis to provide marketing recommendations to increase mobile money usage among its 1M registered users.

Director of Alternative Channels, Product Development Unit

Accion · Washington, DC and Bogotá, Colombia

Created, ran, and built up global practice area of Alternative Channels at ACCION, a boutique investment and advisory services firm with a bank network in over 20 countries. Channel focus areas included retail agents, prepaid cards, and mobile banking. Led wide variety of over dozen in-country consulting projects: launching card programs with Visa in Latin America, optimizing business agent networks in India and Mexico, and designing mobile banking in East and West Africa. Beyond product focus, included activities from business development and market diagnostics to product design and in-country implementation, in English, French, and Spanish.

Product Manager, Product Innovation Center

Capital One · Richmond, Virginia

Lead 8-12 member cross-functional team to develop credit card ideas into viable financial products for in-market pilot testing for the Innovation Lab of Capital One, a Fortune 100 US bank. Often used lean methodology (agile processes, data-driven decision-making, rapid-cycle prototyping) to quickly validate hypotheses and roll-out big wins. Acted as Lead Product Manager on over a dozen tests, including one (on how the company “negotiates” with prospective customer with different credit card features), that redefined Capital One’s direct marketing strategy.

Technology Consultant

Jamii Bora Bank · Nairobi, Kenya

Consultant for one of the largest microfinance banks in Kenya. Set up a computer literacy center and then taught courses in Mathare Valley, one of Africa’s largest slums. Gained deep insights into the needs, wants, and realities of underserved communities.