The short version

I’m a transformation and AI strategy leader with 16 years in financial services. I design operating models, lead complex change programmes, and help large organisations figure out what to actually do with AI — not just talk about it.

I also build things on the side: home automation, AI agents, self-hosted infrastructure. I read too much sci-fi and I’m training for Hyrox.

Where I come from

I was born in a small village near Kazan, in Central Russia. My grandparents were peasant workers in the Soviet Union. My parents were the first university-educated generation in the family. I grew up in Kazan, studied law, then moved to the UK for an MBA at Exeter.

That move changed everything. The MBA led to management consulting at Accenture in London, which led to business architecture at Direct Line Group, which led to HSBC — where I’ve spent the last 12+ years.

The career arc

Accenture (2010–2012) — Management consulting. Post-merger integrations, operating model design, org restructuring. Learned to build frameworks fast and present to people who don’t want to listen.

Direct Line Group (2012–2013) — Business architecture. Built their first Architecture Design Authority. Co-created the corporate operating model. Realised I liked building things more than advising on them.

HSBC (2013–present) — This is where the interesting work happened:

  • Corporate Banking — Designed CRM systems for 4,000 front-office colleagues. Built a design-driven change function from scratch. $50M revenue uplift from better conversion rates.
  • Group M&A — Led sell-side and buy-side transactions totalling $2bn+ in asset value. Full lifecycle from due diligence to post-close warranty.
  • Europe COO — Ran the legal entity merger of HSBC Germany. 300-person programme team, 3,000+ employees impacted, $78M in verified cost saves.
  • Global Insurance (current) — Head of Business Architecture. Created and led the AI adoption strategy for a division with 7,000 employees and 8 entities. Launched a division-wide ideation contest (1,000+ participants, 200+ qualified use cases). Architected a greenfield manufacturing entity delivering $500M in revenue.

The thread through all of it: making complex organisations actually work. Bridging the gap between “strategy deck” and “people doing different things on Monday.”

The builder side

Outside work, I run a self-hosted infrastructure stack (Ubuntu, Docker, Plex, rclone, VPN) and I’m building an agentic AI ecosystem on n8n:

  • Family Bot — an orchestrator with WhatsApp/Telegram integration, sub-workflows, and error handling
  • Document intelligence layer — RAG pipeline using Qdrant for family docs, personal notes, and reference material
  • Personal AI assistant — calendar + to-do management, working toward voice and “memory”

I like building things that solve real problems for my family and me. Sometimes I over-engineer them. That’s part of the fun.

The personal stuff

Father of three. Married to Kate. We live in Discovery Bay, Hong Kong.

I read heavyweight sci-fi — Gene Wolfe, Peter Watts, Neal Stephenson, Iain Banks. Dense, complex, philosophical. If the book has a tidy resolution and an optimistic protagonist, it’s probably not for me.

I train for Hyrox. I play chess (recreationally, not competitively). I’m a practical Stoic in the Roman tradition — Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, not academic philosophy.

I speak English, Russian (native), and Tatar fluently. Beginner German and Mandarin.

I was born in Russia, educated in the UK, worked in London, Paris, and Hong Kong. I’ve lived in enough places to know that systems matter more than intentions, and that the best way to understand something is to build it.