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FSS Thought Leadership Exchange

Next session:
November 20, 2025

Overview

FSS Thought Leadership Exchange is a peer-to-peer community for C-level and senior executives who gather for open virtual discussions to share their top-of-mind challenges and gain insights from their peers.

The topics for the roundtables are determined based on interests and feedback provided during 15-minute prep calls conducted with participants in the weeks leading up to the roundtable.

Hosted by Kyndryl and facilitated by our partner, Profitable Ideas Exchange (PIE), the community provides members a valuable opportunity to build peer relationships, benchmark themselves against peer companies, and learn best practices for today’s and tomorrow’s most important challenges.

Kyndryl host and exchange facilitator
Kyndryl host

Stewart Hyman
Chief Technology Officer for Strategic Markets, Kyndryl  

Stewart leads tech strategy across 43+ countries, driving innovation and enabling teams to solve complex business and IT challenges through modernization and bold transformation. As a former CTO of Kyndryl Canada, he co-developed Serverless Branch and delivered customer-focused innovation with leading financial institutions. Over 25 years at Kyndryl and IBM, Stewart has advanced automation, security and enterprise architecture, while being committed to mentoring future tech leaders.

Exchange  facilitator

Matthew Johnson
Associate Director, Profitable Ideas Exchange

Matt resides in Bozeman, Montana where he works for the Profitable Ideas Exchange, a third-party facilitation and business development consulting firm. His role focuses on assisting professional services firms in deepening and growing relationships with their target clients.

Matt has worked closely with Kyndryl since its inception and facilitates CIO Expert Exchange peer communities across a variety of geographies and industries.

Past sessions

Cloud Sovereignty

When: June 17, 2025
Hosts: Andre Putter, VP, Head of Solutioning for Strategic Markets
Expert: Dipa Velagapudy, VP, Cloud Practice Leader, Kyndryl
Facilitator: Matthew Johnson, Associate Director, Profitable Ideas Exchange

Senior technology executives discussed critical challenges and perspectives on cloud sovereignty, strategic cloud adoption, and artificial intelligence (AI) implementation within the financial services sector.

The agenda was based on interviews with participants.

Read the summary
Evolving AI Landscape

When: March 11, 2025
Hosts: Andre Putter, VP, Head of Solutioning for Strategic Markets
Expert: Khaliq Khan, Vice President, Global Lead of Kyndryl Vital
Facilitator: Matthew Johnson, Associate Director, Profitable Ideas Exchange

Senior technology executives met and discussed augmenting customer and employee experiences, ongoing progress in creating and scaling AI initiatives, AI governance and strategies to explore and deploy agentic AI. 

The agenda was created based on advance interviews with participants.

Read the summary
DORA Readiness and IT Modernization

When: December 3, 2024
Hosts: Andre Putter, VP, Head of Solutioning for Strategic Markets
Facilitator: Matthew Johnson, Associate Director, Profitable Ideas Exchange

Senior executives reviewed DORA readiness and IT modernization. Key topics included DORA implementation, regulatory duties, increased reporting, third-party risk management, and modernizing for business value, cost, and resiliency.

The agenda was created based on advance interviews with participants.

Read the summary
Generative AI and core modernization strategy

When: 26 September 2024
Hosts: Andre Putter, VP, Head of Solutioning for Strategic Markets
Caio Briski, Senior VP, Practice General Manager at Kyndryl 
Facilitator: Matthew Johnson, Associate Director, Profitable Ideas Exchange

FSS executives convened to discuss generative AI use cases, requirements and impact for their organizations.
 

The agenda was created based on advance interviews with participants.

Read the summary
IT cost optimisation and cloud strategy in FSS

When: April 16, 2024
Host: Andre Putter, VP, Head of Solutioning for Strategic Markets
Expert: Arto Sorvoja, Senior Partner and Chairman of the Board of Samlink
Facilitator: Mona Schwartz, Associate Director, Profitable Ideas Exchange

Several CIOs and CTOs from financial services enterprises convene to discuss IT cost optimization, cloud strategy, and talent needs.

The agenda was created based on advance interviews with participants.

Read the summary
DORA and cyber resiliency in FSS

When: March 12, 2024
Host: Jerome Calmelet, President of Kyndryl France
Expert: Conal Hickey, VP, Security and Resiliency for Strategic Markets
Facilitator: Mona Schwartz, Associate Director, Profitable Ideas Exchange

Several financial services executives convene to discuss the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). The executives focus on the implementation timeline, prioritization of critical business processes, and third-party risk management.

The agenda was created based on advance interviews with participants.

Read the summary
Generative AI in FSS

When: November 28, 2023
Host: Jerome Calmelet, VP, Kyndryl Consult
Expert: Andre Putter, VP, Head of Solutioning, Kyndryl
Facilitator: Mona Schwartz, Associate Director, Profitable Ideas Exchange

Several executives from banks and financial services organizations across the globe convene to discuss generative AI. The executives focus on Gen AI use cases, AI operations and automation, IT target operating models, and the regulation of AI.

The agenda was created based on advance interviews with participants.

Read the summary
Connect with our experts

Dipa Velagapudy, Vice President, Cloud Practice Leader, Kyndryl


With over two decades of experience, Dipa Velagapudy supports enterprise clients across the globe in their cloud transformation. With deep expertise in hybrid IT, cloud strategy and digital modernization, Dipa is pivotal in helping organizations navigate complex technology landscapes and accelerate their journey toward agile, resilient and secure infrastructure.

Connect with Dipa Velagapudy

Cónal Hickey, Vice President, Security & Resiliency Practice Leader, Strategic Markets

In his current role of Vice President and Global Cyber Resilience practice leader for Kyndryl in Strategic Markets, Conal is helping clients become more cyber resilient in their IT and digital transformation journeys.

Cónal has extensive experience in enabling clients to move their applications across hybrid/multi-cloud environments.  He led the IT separation workstream during the Kyndryl spin-off from IBM and held senior executive positions at IBM, including Network Services and Cloud Migration Services.

Connect with Cónal Hickey

Khaliq Khan, Vice President, Global Lead of Kyndryl Vital  
 

Khaliq Khan has three decades of experience in business strategy and technology, leading high-impact transformations across the US, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He manages an international portfolio of programs and has successfully scaled a full-service AI-powered experience agency in over 60 countries. His mission is to help customers shape and execute complex transformations using advanced digital technologies, AI-driven solutions and innovation to unlock new pockets of value.

Connect with Khaliq Khan

Executive feedback

“These topics are high on my agenda. CyberSec absorbs a lot of resources and budget, while AI is the top priority for research and assessment of potential use cases.’’

‘’It was a great Exchange. I really appreciate the concerns and opinions expressed by the executives who joined. I hope this team continues to explore the challenges and the solutions towards DORA implications and implementations. I will be very happy to participate in the future sessions.”

’’I always prioritize attending this roundtable because I’m able to take something actionable back to my organization from every conversation”

Connect with Kyndryl

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