State Street Adds Colt's Achkar to Digital Transformation Team

Based in London, Achkar reports to Pinar Emirdag, head of digital product development and innovation at State Street. Emirdag has been tasked with building out the “digital transformation” team at State Street, which is focused on developing new products and services not currently part of State Street’s portfolio. Emirdag, who joined State Street in January, declined to comment on how big the team currently is, or will grow to be, but says it is “evolving” and will be a “very small and focused team.”

She also says the team is organized around the mentality that “product development and innovation should be done through some very diverse channels and it should be an interdisciplinary concept. It should combine business operations, regulation and technology knowledge.”  It’s also not being limited to one group of people. “We’re also working with a much wider group of people outside of the team across all our businesses. We’re trying to put people together who have different approaches to problems,“ she adds.

Emirdag declined to comment on what projects were currently underway, but says new platforms, how market structure  will involve and the impact this will have on State Street’s various business lines all contribute to “inspiration for product development here.”

Achkar joins State Street from UK-based network provider Colt where he spent six years, most recently as director of strategic alliances for capital markets.  Before that, he was at the London Stock Exchange where he was co-head of sales for its European multilateral trading facility, Turquoise. Achkar has also held roles at Citigroup, where he was vice president for Financial Institutions, and telecommunications company Motorola.