Name
Niresh Rajah
Job Title
UKAI Chair for Financial Services & AI & Expert Chief Data & AI Officer in Financial Services
Speaker Bio
Niresh Rajah is a globally recognised executive leader in Financial Services and Professional Services with over 20+ years of experience at the forefront of Data & Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Regulation, Automation, Innovation and Digital Transformation. With a distinguished track record, he has held senior leadership roles at Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Danske Bank, DLA Piper, and Grant Thornton, often reporting directly to Group CEO or Group COO.
As a seasoned Group Chief Data & AI Officer, Niresh has led complex and high-impact AI and data transformations, balancing innovation with regulatory rigor. He has led complex regulatory, AI and Data transformations at Board level including Brexit changes and GDPR working with regulators across Europe.
He also holds Non-Executive Director and Board Advisory roles and is the Innovation Expert at Oxford University and Honorary Practice Fellow for AI, Data & Digital at Imperial College.
Recognised in the Global CDO 100 for three consecutive years (2023-2025), AI Executive to Watch (2025), and Data Management Professional (2023).
Niresh has been appointed as Chair of the UK AI Financial Services Working Group, where he champions the balance between innovation and practical, pragmatic regulations for consumer protection.
Niresh’s is passionate for sharing his vast knowledge and experience through advancing the Data, Analytics and AI community; he is a co-chair of the UK Chief Data & Analytics Officer governing body for Gartner C-Suite communities, an advisory board member at A-Team Group (for both Data and Reg-Tech), CDO Magazine and Hot Topics Magazine. He is a judge at a number of awards, such as the British Data Awards, Women in Governance Risk & Compliance, A-Team Data Management and RegTech Awards.
Niresh is an accomplished speaker and regularly speaks at the FT, Economist and Gartner conferences.
He has steered new innovation in the Data, AI, FinTech and RegTech space by being a mentor for start-up’s and scale-up’s through a number of mentor programmes at Oxford University, Imperial College, Seedcamp and FinTech Alliance.
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/nireshrajah-chiefdataofficer
As a seasoned Group Chief Data & AI Officer, Niresh has led complex and high-impact AI and data transformations, balancing innovation with regulatory rigor. He has led complex regulatory, AI and Data transformations at Board level including Brexit changes and GDPR working with regulators across Europe.
He also holds Non-Executive Director and Board Advisory roles and is the Innovation Expert at Oxford University and Honorary Practice Fellow for AI, Data & Digital at Imperial College.
Recognised in the Global CDO 100 for three consecutive years (2023-2025), AI Executive to Watch (2025), and Data Management Professional (2023).
Niresh has been appointed as Chair of the UK AI Financial Services Working Group, where he champions the balance between innovation and practical, pragmatic regulations for consumer protection.
Niresh’s is passionate for sharing his vast knowledge and experience through advancing the Data, Analytics and AI community; he is a co-chair of the UK Chief Data & Analytics Officer governing body for Gartner C-Suite communities, an advisory board member at A-Team Group (for both Data and Reg-Tech), CDO Magazine and Hot Topics Magazine. He is a judge at a number of awards, such as the British Data Awards, Women in Governance Risk & Compliance, A-Team Data Management and RegTech Awards.
Niresh is an accomplished speaker and regularly speaks at the FT, Economist and Gartner conferences.
He has steered new innovation in the Data, AI, FinTech and RegTech space by being a mentor for start-up’s and scale-up’s through a number of mentor programmes at Oxford University, Imperial College, Seedcamp and FinTech Alliance.
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/nireshrajah-chiefdataofficer