Sam Bassett

Sam is the country leader for Singapore. With over 25 years' experience, he's primarily worked in financial services with consulting firms or directly in the banking industry to deliver change and support strategic, tactical, and operation goals across Asia, Europe and the Middle East. His strengths are in building client and stakeholder relationships, managing and engaging teams, and delivering change to support strategic, tactical and operational goals.

Major Projects & Roles

• Regional practice lead for a Group Technology Wealth Management division, responsible for driving program and project delivery standards and quality and facilitating the adoption of agile development (covering 1000+ staff)
• Chief Operating Officer for a global private bank (MENA Region) – established a new regional business advisory centre (60+ staff) with responsibilities for Client Services, Compliance, Finance, Operational Risk, Marketing and Analytics
• Managed a resource pool of 60+ business analysts to deliver strategic cross functional operations change activities in APAC for a global bank’s Wealth Management and Investment Banking divisions
• Implemented a Client On-boarding Service Centre for WM APAC, to optimise resource costs and processes, and establish an independent centre of excellence to enhance KYC and AML objectives
• Led a 20 strong consulting team to plan and execute a six-month remediation program for a global private bank resulting from the data leak of APAC client information
• Managed a six-month regional integration of a global private bank acquisition covering staff, platform, client onboarding, products and client advisor training / accreditation
• Developed and launched a global audit program to provide assurance on a global bank’s strategic technology portfolio
• Designed and delivered a disaster recovery and technology provision benchmarking evaluation (and recommendations) for the board of a regional bank, which had been mandated by a country banking regulator
• Program manager for driving country deliverables for global programs covering Anti-Money Laundering, Basel II (UK FSA Waiver Application), and Operational Risk Management for a global bank
• Delivered a nine-month strategic review to leverage a $100m+ investment in the treasury operations of a bank’s global markets division, which involved evaluating the market demand and capabilities to insource / white label the platform on behalf of third-party banks
• Led Operations for Group Wealth Management, focusing on financials, performance, productivity and steering teams on lean process improvements and best practices
• Led business management activities for regional wealth management operations – responsible for business / workforce planning, operational risk, communications and learning

Areas of Expertise

• Project, Programme & Transformation Management
• Innovation & Digital Transformation
• Wealth Management Banking
• Process & Organisational Change (Lean)
• Program & Project Standards Assurance
• Agile Transformation
• Shared Services & Outsourcing
• Vendor Management
• Workforce Management & Optimisation
• Risk, Regulatory & Compliance Strategy
• Client Onboarding & KYC / AML
• Internal and External Audit
• Operations Business Management

Industry Expertise

• Financial Services

Education

• Bachelor of Accountancy (Hons), majoring in Management Information Systems