From a man of courage and ethics to a tech-driven changemaker, Faizan Ahmed has come a long way. With a conventional bent of mind, he never restricted himself to traditional forms. Instead, he built his way to a technologically advanced financial system to make people’s lives easier with smooth financial transactions. Faizan, as a leader, has always respected his value system, without confining himself to it. His journey as a financial professional can be summarized as transforming the financial systems, keeping the values and culture intact.
Faizan’s most significant contribution was converting a conventional bank into an Islamic institution. This gave him an opportunity to explore the changemaker in him. Converting a traditionally run banking system into an Islamic institution was a whole new task, not just redesigning, as it was thought to be. Faizan knew that this was a tedious task, and he would have to plan everything accordingly.
“It was not just a regulatory exercise. It was about redesigning systems, re-training people, and re-educating customers,” Faizan recalls how he planned everything step-by-step. “It gave me an appreciation for technology as an enabler of change and the importance of aligning decisions with ethical values.”
From Value Keeper To Changemaker – It’s All About Adapting
The experience Faizan gained while transforming a type of bank into another gave him a different level of confidence, which he leveraged when he became the CFO at Trust Bank Amanah in Suriname. In his last assignment, he turned a traditionally run bank into an Islamic institution, whereas at Trust Bank, it was a completely different story altogether. Here, he was not only supposed to bring about a cultural change, which none of them were aware of in the system, but also to make people technologically adaptive.
“To make someone believe something you are saying, it is important to build trust. Only when they trust you, they believe what you say,” Faizan says. As a leader, he never compelled people to obey his instructions. He instead made them trust him and then follow the instructions voluntarily. “I knew quite well that the market I was trying to integrate Islamic banking principles in was completely unfamiliar with them. I knew people would need to listen to things deeply, which required trust,” he adds.
For people to trust him, he needed to be convinced himself. Hence, he studied each aspect of what he was trying to do. In the process, he understood he would need to remain true to his value system to talk to his people. “These experiences reinforced my philosophy, and I knew a leader is the one who is both visionary and adaptive, using technology to create efficiency, but values to create trust,” he says.
Inspired to Adapt: Lessons from Mentors and Moments
Faizan’s adaptability as a leader did not emerge by chance. His mentors, who saw finance not as numbers but as an empowerment tool, instilled in him this ability to adapt. While leading the project to digitize Islamic finance for rural communities, Faizan witnessed the local entrepreneurs using mobile apps for Shariah-compliant financing. This made him realize that finance is not about how large institutions control access but how technology can be made more accessible. For Faizan, every challenge, be it cultural, structural, or operational, was an opportunity to align traditions and innovation within the system.
Faizan’s leadership went beyond strategies and numbers. From secure mobile-first onboarding introduced to avoid long queues and reduce paperwork to incorporating AI-powered monitoring systems to track inconsistent transactions and reinforcing anti-money laundering measures, Faizan implemented technology in all forms to make banking faster, easier, and more transparent for users, ensuring all fairness and integrity in the system.
Faizan implemented strategies to encourage the use of digital trade finance tools. He introduced a transparent platform where cross-border transactions were carried out much faster. This significantly helped businesses that previously struggled with international trade. “For me, digital transformation is not about chasing trends, but about creating access, building trust, and making banking simple for people who were once left out,” he says.
People, Process & Purpose: The 3Ps Success
For Faizan, success is not measured only in balance sheets. It’s measured based on the empowerment of the people, adaptability of the process, and fulfillment of the purpose. Any of the Ps, if missed out, makes a leader unsuccessful, no matter how strong his business’s financial performance is. Faizan believes empowered employees and communities are the true drivers of growth.
As the CFO, he made sure that the teams built digital skills and opened opportunities for SMEs and local entrepreneurs. Digitizing operations ensures transparency and ease for customers. Banking, in his vision, should be seamless and accessible, without a barrier. From paperless banking to channeling funds into renewable energy, his approach proved that finance can fuel both profit and progress.
The 3Ps reminded Faizan that leadership is about creating long-term value where people, technology, and ethics converge.
Strategic Layering: The Art of Balancing
Faizan considers leadership to be about rhythm, not routine. He calls that rhythm, strategic layering, which helps a leader balance vision, people, and partnerships without losing sight of what matters most. “Big-picture planning gets scheduled early in the week when my energy is sharpest,” Faizan shares.
Strategy, for him, requires clarity and focus, so he reserves his freshest hours for shaping the future. People, however, remain at the center every single day. Coaching, feedback, and innovation reviews are embedded daily because people are the engine of execution. Keeping the team engagement constant, Faizan always makes sure the momentum never slips.
A partnership, which is yet another layer, demands precision. Faizan approaches them with deliberate selectivity. He focuses on partnerships that can accelerate digital transformation or expand access to ethical capital. Every collaboration takes the mission a step forward.
Technology, the third strategic layer, ties it all together. He confesses that becoming tech-savvy in the financial sector was a challenge. He learnt to use real-time dashboards and automated reporting to enable routine monitoring so that he could focus more on strategy and people.
Strategic layering has kept Faizan grounded in values while working toward innovation. It is his way of proving that the balance between vision and execution, people and process, is the real art of leadership.
Personal Life Is A Booster & He Never Forgets To Recharge Himself
Technology, besides helping make his professional space better, also allows him to stay connected with his loved ones through video calls. However, he agrees that balance comes not from tools alone, but from discipline.
His recharge also comes from within. Reading sharpens his perspective, fitness builds resilience, and spiritual grounding clarifies him. “Clarity and resilience come from investing in both body and mind,” he reflects. A healthy lifestyle, according to him, helps him lead with energy, patience, and purpose.
Guiding the Coming Generation of Fintech Leaders
True innovation requires both finance and technology, he believes. In every interaction with the young professionals, he reminds and recommends that no shortcuts and buzzwords can ever replace the depth of knowledge. He urges them to think beyond apps and trends and try solving real issues of access, affordability, and transparency. He urges the youth to have ambitions, but always aligned with ethics. Fintech without ethics risks becomes exploitative.
The future of fintech will belong to leaders who can learn from diverse markets and respond quickly to change. Faizan’s message is clear: technology is only meaningful when it restores fairness and creates opportunity.
