Leadership Europe

Senior professional with over 25 years experience in the Payments Industry with a focus on Digital Commerce, Fraud and Identity Management, Payment and related Regulation Compliance. With a special passion for Payment Innovation, New Payment Models such as Marketplaces and Fintechs and Growth and Expansion Strategy.

Founder and Principal Consultant of Payment Options Ltd, Associate Specialist Partner at Be Shaping the Future, Global Expansion and Partnership Advisor at Thunes as well as NED at Trust Payments and at PaySME.

Held a number of executive roles: at Datacash (MasterCard) as an executive board member heading Strategy, Innovation, Partnerships and Marketing, earlier at Global Collect (Worldline) as a VP in charge of Partnerships and Alliances and prior to that at CyberSource (Visa) as a Head of EMEA, developing European markets and widening the payment product portfolio. Five years at Microsoft driving payments in the EMEA region as well as providing strategic direction to the Management in the USA.

Earlier in the career ten years at Visa International, across variety of roles from Relationship Management to Business Development in new digital payment technologies (smart cards and 3D Secure); working with multinational banks, processors, vendors and professional forums within Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region (CEMEA).

Experienced network leader and analyst in financial services and IT.
Focus on strategy, innovation and development with strong combination of innovation theory and practice including an industrial PhD in collaborative innovation. Practised event moderator with large Danish and International network in the Fintech Area
Background in economics (master in economics and e-mba) and experience in financial services, digitization and IT.

Digital leader with 25+ years of experience working with Board, CxOs and senior leadership working in hands-on roles within diverse industry segments like FMCG/Mfg (Nestle, PMI, Abbott, Dyson, Techdata), Retail (M&S, Luxottica, Tesco, LVMH), Pharma/Healthcare (NHS, Abbott, Reckitt), Financial Services (DWS-Deutsche Bank, AXA, LBG, Barclays, VISA, USAA), Travel & Transport (Gatwick Airport, Singapore airlines), Media & Technology (BT, Vodafone, BSkyB), Energy (BP, E-ON, EDF) & Public Sector (DfES, Defra, SMMT, NHS).

Worked with the best with creative agencies and tech providers ranging from no.1 Digital agency (Accenture Digital), Top Tier-1 consulting firm (Deloitte) and digital technology platform vendors (HCL, TCS).

Creagh is a strategic business and technology leader with over 25 years of international leadership experience and a passion for driving business utilising technology and digital innovation to empower business and drive organisational goals focusing on business growth, competitive edge and continuous improvement.Experienced across multiple industries, including Financial Services, Insurance, FMCG, Wholesale/Retail and Education, Creagh has led both major organisations and small to medium sized businesses through periods of significant transformation and into the digital future.

“Bridging the gap between Business & IT“ and “not technology for technology’s sake” are Creagh’s catch cries as he focus on the “why” behind digital and technology initiatives, rather than just the “what/how”.

Christopher is PA Consulting’s Global Head of Digital Banking and Operations and Co-Head of Financial Services-Cloud, focused on accelerating Financial Services’ adoption of novel digital catalysts e.g. Cloud-based products or Fintech capabilities in Financial Institutions. He leads on: 1) redefining Financial Services’ (Banks’, Asset Managers’) customer value propositions and business operations through Cloud, 2) simplifying application of innovative digital technologies in Financial Services, 3) reinventing banking processes through application of emerging technologies. His primary clients are based in the US and Europe.

Christopher leads engagement across the C-suite, solving mission-critical Financial Services’ challenges at leading global institutions through the application of effective and practical Cloud transformations, Enterprise Architecture and business-technology operating model change, and digital platforms & Fintech solutions. He enables creation of: 1) new client-facing digital platform and services, 2) streamlined operations (including across 3rd party risk management and Economic Crime), and 3) Cloud and AI, MLOps-enabled cost take-out.

Alongside advising C-suite leaders and leading PA’s Financial Services Digital Banking & Operations and Financial Services Cloud businesses globally, he is a hands-on architect and software development leader, with experiences spanning AWS, Azure, GCP, PHP 8.x, Java, alongside Cloud-native & microservice platform development, Agile and CI/CD & DevOps delivery, and alliance & digital ecosystem partnering – including with leading Fintechs.