Akash is available for hire
Hire AkashAkash Rastogi
Verified Expert in Finance
Management Consulting Expert
Location
Toronto, Canada
Toptal Member Since
May 2, 2022
Akash is a former partner and Canadian head of business consulting practice for financial services at Cognizant, a Fortune 200 company. He brings over 15 years of hands-on experience in formulating and executing strategies for leading North American banks. He has previously worked at EY, PwC, and CIBC World Markets. Akash is excited to continue his consulting career as a freelancer for Toptal and help its diverse set of banking clients achieve their strategic objectives
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Advanced Management Program On Corporate Innovation
Stanford University | Graduate School of Business
Master's Degree
University of Western Ontario | The Richard Ivey School of Business
Bachelor of Technology
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Certification Highlights
Certified Blockchain Professional
CryptoCurrency Certification Consortium
Case Studies
Expertise
Work Experience
Partner and National Head of Business Consulting Practice for Banking and Financial Services
2016 - 2020
Cognizant
- Led business consulting practices for the financial services vertical across Canada.
- Managed an annual revenue of over $15 million and a team of 40+ employees across the practice, including coverage, spanned retail and commercial banking, capital markets, and wealth and asset management.
- Spearheaded an enterprise-level digital transformation initiative from inception to execution at a top-five Canadian bank to help it become future-ready. The initiative was awarded the Best Achievement of Operational Excellence across banks globally.
- Performed strategic and financial analysis of a global portfolio of businesses for a leading bank to improve its operating margin and streamline the portfolio.
- Identified businesses to retain and re-invest and strengthen financial management or divest.
- Led all aspects of managing a business consulting practice, including the development and execution of market strategy, pursuit of strategic sales opportunities, leadership of select client engagements, and overall development of practice and people.
Focus areas: Management Consulting
Vice President | Financial Services Advisory
2014 - 2017
EY
- Managed multiple competencies nationally like capital markets, commercial banking, payments, and blockchain. Drove formulation and execution of market strategy and delivery of strategic engagements.
- Formulated a target operating model and developed a business case and strategic roadmap to build shared service capabilities for a consortium of regional financial institutions (FIs) to support their retail and commercial banking business lines.
- Led strategic analysis to help one of the largest payments FI in North America transition from a utility to an innovation model. Worked directly with the Board to formulate a future strategy, funding, decision-making, and overall governance model.
- Led an industry-level initiative on behalf of the Department of Finance to analyze potential risks to consumers from the emergence of fintechs in the Canadian payments landscape and proposed recommendations to mitigate the risks.
- Developed a product strategy and led the execution of the initiative to launch a remote deposit capture product in the market for a leading North American bank. The product supported consumers, small businesses, and Wholesale customer segments.
- Recognized for leading complex engagements, taught leadership, coaching, and sales abilities, and recieved of multiple awards from the firm.
Focus areas: Commercial Banking, Consumer Lending, Derivatives, Target Operating Models, Business Cases, Roadmaps, Blockchain, Innovation Management
Vice President | Banking and Capital Markets Consulting Practice
2011 - 2014
PwC
- Led a retail credit transformation initiative for the COO of the retail banking LOB of a global bank in order to improve the overall operational efficiency and effectiveness of the lending business.
- Managed a commercial banking transformation strategic program for the CFO and CRO of commercial banking LOB of a leading Canadian FI to improve its operating margin across all lending and cash management products.
- Headed a cross-enterprise business workstream across retail, business banking, wealth management, and capital markets LOBs of a Tier-1 North American bank as part of implementation of FATCA regulations.
- Authored multiple points of view on leading industry issues and helped develop PwC’s thought leadership.
- Awarded multiple accolades for exemplary individual performance and leading complex transformations by the firm.
Focus areas: Consumer Lending, Commercial Banking, Business Cases, Roadmaps, Derivatives, Target Operating Models, Regulatory Analysis
Director on CEO's Office | Capital Markets
2009 - 2011
CIBC
- Led various tactical and strategic cross-functional initiatives, as mandated by the CEO of capital markets LOB, on issues impacting the business globally. Developed and presented recommendations to the strategic executive team to address the issues.
- Directed an enterprise initiative to enable the strategic executive team with a real-time view of market and credit risks across the bank. Culminated in the identification and mitigation of key systemic issues across the bank.
- Performed a strategic analysis of various banking and trading books of the bank's treasury department.
Focus areas: Trading, Market Risk, Credit Risk, Asset Liability Management (ALM), Treasury
Director of Interest Rate Swaps Trading
2005 - 2009
CIBC
- Traded interest rate swaps for the bank's institutional market-making and flows trading desk. Coverage spanned global institutional asset managers, hedge funds, pension funds, and associated derivatives, cash, and basis markets.
- Formulated and developed various algorithmic trading strategies and models as a member of the bank's proprietary trading team.
- Led day-to-day management of various facets of US$ and C$ interest rate swap books, including reset risk and unsecured funding. Provided daily market commentary to other related teams and desks.
- Authored various trading-related papers and built trading models that got institutionalized on the derivatives desks across the firm.
Focus areas: Interest Rate Swaps, Trading, Hedging, Fixed Income, FX, Pension Funds, Hedge Funds, Broker Dealers
Associate of the CFO's Office | Personal and Commercial Banking
2004 - 2004
CIBC
- Authored a paper on Canada Mortgage Bond, the bank's mortgage securitization program. Developed end-to-end enterprise view across mortgage lending business in retail banking, the bank's treasury department, and securitization desk in capital markets.
- Performed competitive benchmarking of operating performance of the bank's personal and commercial banking business for presentation to senior leadership and investors.
- Developed financial models to support the three-year strategic planning and forecasting process. Performed financial due diligence on various initiatives as part of the capital budgeting process.
Focus areas: Mortgages, Consumer Lending, Commercial Banking, Mortgage-backed Securities, Strategic Planning, Investor Presentations, Capital Budgeting
Multiple Technology Related Roles | Enterprise Solution Architect
1995 - 2003
Various Firms
- Spent the first seven years of my career as a technologist and worked for various firms, including Lucent Technologies, PwC, Citibank, and NIIT Limited across the US, Canada, and India.
- Started as a software engineer and progressed to more senior roles over time like enterprise solution architect, technical product development lead, IT strategist for CIO advisory services, and technology pre-sales lead.
- Architected, designed, and delivered a B2C order fulfillment eCommerce site. Microsoft rated the site as among the top-10 enterprise-level applications built using its software.
- Advised vice president and chief information officer-level executives on the application potential of new technologies like web services and SOA.
- Advised the global head of the product division on new product ideas based on evolving market needs and technological breakthroughs. The firm’s first web-based product was a result of such recommendation.
- Led the wireless services practice for PwC's IT strategy business. Executed strategic partnerships with multiple wireless vendors.
Focus areas: IT Consulting, IT Strategy, Software Design, Software Development, Application Architecture, eCommerce
Education
2016 - 2018
Advanced Management Program On Corporate Innovation in Corporate Innovation
Stanford University | Graduate School of Business - San Francisco, USA
2003 - 2005
Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
University of Western Ontario | The Richard Ivey School of Business - London, Ontario, Canada
1991 - 1995
Bachelor of Technology in Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - New Delhi, India
Certifications
MAY 2016 - MAY 2024
Certified Blockchain Professional
CryptoCurrency Certification Consortium
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