Ara Abrahamyan, Ph.D.

Board Advisor, Ameriabank, Ex-Chief Digital Officer, Erste Group Bank

Ara Abrahamyan is independent consultant, board member and advisor on Digital Transformation. He is also angel investor and strategy advisor to several FinTech and DeepTech start-ups. Prior to his freelance career, his was working in information technology functions in financial services industry.

His career accomplishments consist of more than 25 years of experience of up to Corporate Board level (CDTO of Erste Group Bank AG) oversight for implementing technology projects, developing product requirements, and analyzing support strategies and processes to facilitate best customer experience, usage of data as an asset, improved operations and efficiency. His superior communication and problem-solving skills, his ability to articulate complex topics in understandable and actionable manner based on fundamental educational background allow him to excel in driving teams through all facets of project life cycles and realizing improved efficiency and productivity.

Ara applied his expertise in developing and managing hundreds of millions of euro project portfolio and initiatives for major global corporations including Deutsche Bank AG and Erste Group Bank AG designing support strategies and creating comprehensive technical solutions to drive business success by means of building and developing large global, diverse and distributed teams.

Ara is an expert on applying technology to solve real business problems His opinions have been featured in international press articles, such as by The Banker and CMS Law. He teaches elective courses on Digital Transformation and Leadership in business schools for MBA and Executive programs. Ara also works as a trainer, invited speaker or conference host on select occasions.

Ara holds a Ph.D. (Eng) in Information Technology and Automation systems (AI/Decision support systems) from State Engineering University of Armenia. He completed his graduate studies in Electrical Engineering in the same University.