DBS innovation chief Neil Cross is bidding goodbye to banking after five years leading the Singaporean bank's digital transformation effort.
Cross has been lauded in fintech circles as the world's 'most disruptive' chief innovation officer, leading the bank on a major culture shift as it transitioned to a digital future.
Rather than tinkering with apps, Cross took it upon himself to embed a culture of innovation across the board, from the executive boardroom to the branch banking operation.
"For me the role of an innovation leader is to create innovators, not apps," he says in a LinkedIn post confirming his departure. "It’s about people not technology, if you can create inspire and educate the entire workforce to do their careers best work and to constantly strive to create the amazing then the company is unstoppable."
He leaves the bank on a career high after DBS was named one of the world’s best digital banks at the Euromoney Awards for Excellence.
Cross will be spending his time on his Orangutan conservation efforts, a private passion, and chairing fintech startup PictureWealth, which he co-founded in Australia several years back.
In his stead, DBS has promoted the innovation head of ecosystems, Bidyut Dumra to lead the innovation team and promoted the innovation management head Mark Evans to run the bank's experience strategy unit.