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We are curious professionals who decided to trade job titles for bold ideas

Meet Your Team

Co-founders

Sanat Rao

Co-founder & Managing Director

  • Research Specialism: Socio-technical future imaginaries in the development of AI
  • 33 years of global banking & technology experience
  • Former CEO – Infosys Finacle
  • Former Vice President & Senior Partner, IBM Consulting
  • Master’s in AI Ethics and Society (Cambridge)
  • Master’s in Digital Anthropology (UCL)

Abdulla Qassem

Co-founder & Managing Director

  • Former Group Chief Operating Officer – Emirates NBD Group
  • 35y+ of leadership, technology & operations experience
  • 10 current and former Board of Director and Chairman roles, including Emirates NBD, Tanfeeth, Daman Investments, Naqoodi, Smart Stream, Numbrs, UAE Banks Federation, Transguard, Mastercard (Global Tech Advisory Board), M2P
  • Led the world’s largest commercial banking digital transformation project
  • B.S. Computer Science, Texas, USA

Advisory Board

Likhit Wagle

Advisory Board Member, WithinTheBox.ai

  • Former Managing Partner, Financial Services, IBM Consulting & Technology
  • Led major transformational engagements in banking worldwide
  • Led Strategy Consulting for PwC Consulting in the UK
  • Led M&A for PwC Corporate Finance in the UK
  • Recognised thought leader in the industry
  • BA Hons (Economics and Business Finance) from University of Manchester and Chartered Accountant

Frank Stockx

Advisory Board Member, WithinTheBox.ai​

  • 30 years of experience across functions in the financial industry including commercial, product development, information technology and operations
  • Advisory work with non-executive positions in fintech, payments, IT consulting and software sphere
  • Former executive member at ING in Belgium
  • Driven transformation, innovation and productivity improvement in both retail and wholesale banking
  • Exemplary record of creating international coalitions at C-level both intracompany or with industry peers

David Feeny

Advisory Board Member, WithinTheBox.ai​

  • Professor Emeritus
  • Fellow, Green Templeton College, University of Oxford
  • Research Specialism: Understanding the CEO-CIO relationship, design and evaluation of custom executive programmes 20 y+ experience of executive education at Oxford
  • Industry Advisor to UK Identity and Passport Service’s National Identity Scheme since 2007
  • Editorial Board Member of MIS Quarterly Executive since 2001

    https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/about-us/people/david-feeny

Subject Matter Experts

Dr Henry Shevlin

Senior Academic Advisor, WithinTheBox.ai

  • Associate Director, Centre for the Future of Intelligence
  • Programme Director, Kinds of Intelligence, University of Cambridge
  • Research Specialism: AI Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Cognitive Science
  • Areas of Competence: Moral and Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
  • Editorial board member International Journal of AI and Consciousness
  • 16+ academic publications

Anthony Lipp

Senior Industry Advisor, WithinTheBox.ai

  • Board Member, Executive Advisor, Private Equity
  • Global Head of Strategy for Banking and Financial Markets at IBM
  • Practice Leader and Partner roles with McKinsey & Co. and PwC
  • Experience in driving major strategy, organization, and enterprise transformation initiatives in banking, insurance and capital markets
  • Led extensive research and knowledge efforts, intellectual capital development, patent application
  • Widely cited and published industry thought leader

Ramnath Venkatraman

Principal

  • 30+ years of experience as trainer and facilitator
  • Founder member of a contemporary Islamic Bank in Dubai, UAE
  • Certified Faculty of London Institute of Banking and Finance
  • Guest Faculty for ADGM Training Sessions on Behavioural Skills
  • Partnering with Amity Executive Education for Soft Skills and Leadership Courses
  • Coach for C Suite mainly UAE Nationals in terms of Business Communication
  • Accomplished Public Speaker and Mentor in Toastmasters International

Abhishek Mohanty

Principal

  • Research specialism: Social anthropology of digital, design, and enterprise
  • Doctoral researcher (as an AHRC CHASE Scholar) and academic staff (Anthropology and Sociology), SOAS University of London
  • 18y+ experience outside academia: includes research entrepreneurship (LagomWorks) and management consulting (PwC)
  • MA Social Anthropology, SOAS University of London as a British Chevening Scholar

Sherry Sharma

Principal

  • Research interest: Socio-cultural impact of digital technologies in business, healthcare, and education
  • 12+ years of professional experience including entrepreneurship in Travel domain and Product Management in Pharmaceutical industry
  • M.Sc. Digital Anthropology from University College London

Jack Orlik

Principal

  • 13+ years of experience driving innovation across public and private sectors
  • Expert in designing and conducting specialised training programs
  • Former Policy Advisor at the OECD
  • Innovation consultant with experience empowering teams at Nesta
  • Conducted research, designed and led impactful training programs for finance professionals and leaders
  • Expert collaborator providing strategic guidance to leaders to prepare for change and capitalise on emerging opportunities, including generative AI

Tomasz Hollanek, PhD

Academic Advisor

  • Research specialism: Human-Centered Design; AI Ethics; Participatory Methods
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Affiliated Lecturer, University of Cambridge
  • Co-designer of the In-depth EU AI Act Toolkit
  • Prior to academia: UX design and research
  • University of Cambridge (PhD and MPhil; Vice-Chancellor’s Scholar)

Anna Rohmann

Academic Advisor

  • Research Specialism: FinTech, gen AI research methods, digital cultural studies, linguistics
  • Associate Lecturer, Goldsmiths; Visiting Lecturer, Kings College and City University London
  • Goldsmiths, University of London (M.A. Anthropology & Cultural Politics, M.Phil. Anthropology)
  • PhD candidate “Diversity & Inclusion in FinTech. Implications of everyday financial exchange in digitized capitalism

Yulu Pi

Academic Advisor

  • Research specialism: Responsible AI, AI governance, Human-AI interaction
  • University of Warwick Chancellor Scholar
  • University of Cambridge Research Assistant at Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence

 

 

What We Do

Explore Our Offerings

Experiential Learning​

Specialised capability-building for AI-embedded decision-making

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Purposeful Design

Human-Technology engagement design through applied behavioural research

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Targeted Innovation

Domain-specific applied AI advisory


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