Target Group has announced the appointment of Shashi Bhat as chairman to help steer its next phase of growth in financial services and wider regulated sectors.
Shashi has more than three decades of experience in financial services, building deep sector knowledge and expertise across sales and operations, business strategy and digital transformation. His focus for nearly two decades has been digital transformation, working primarily for Citibank across two stints. During his time, Shashi has served as head of digital banking for the EMEA region, working across 10 countries to develop and deploy large-scale digital transformation programs. This covered both retail banking and wealth management and included a full technology stack overhaul and transformation from physical distribution to a digital self-service operating model.
Shashi left Citi in 2017 to start his own consultancy, working with a wide range of clients including Tier 1 banks, wealth management firms and start-up organisations. Alongside support with digital transformation, Shashi works closely with firms on operational transformation – including products and propositions – as well as digital strategy.
In addition to this work, Shashi serves as a business adviser, working with various organisations on their product proposition and go-to-market strategy. One such organisation is Tech Mahindra – the parent company of Target Group – advising on the BFSI proposition for the BPS side of the business.
In his new role, Shashi will be utilising his vast experience and network in the market to help grow Target. He will be working closely with the executive committee and the wider team to achieve Target’s strategic objectives and deliver value to its customers across the UK and internationally.
Target has been operating across banking, financial services and insurance for more than four decades, specialising in mortgage and loan originations, investments, payments and collections, in life servicing, remediation and redress. Target works with major financial institutions as a provider of business process servicing, as well as its own proprietary software solutions.
Speaking on his appointment, Shashi Bhat said: “I am excited to join Target and help realise the fabulous potential the business has to offer. There is so much going for it with its breadth of capabilities and there’s much we can achieve, particularly with such a great culture and a strong and motivated team in place. On top of that is the depth – not just as an FCA-regulated entity, but also of its understanding of BFSI being stronger than most outsourcers will have.
“With my experience, it’s clear that there are bank-grade processes and frameworks in place throughout Target’s offering. That makes for a brilliant foundation, which you can build on and add other capabilities and add more propositions as we address what the market needs. It’s a great opportunity with plenty of potential – it’s all about pulling the right levers and putting ourselves in the best position to achieve this growth.”
Peter O’Connor, CEO of Target Group, adds: “With his extensive background in financial services and digital transformation, there’s no doubt that Shashi is a tremendous coup for Target and will be a huge asset as our new chairman. It is an exciting time at Target as we continue to execute our ambitious growth strategy – built on the strength of our people, our broad capabilities across regulated sectors and our deep domain expertise. I am looking forward to working together and leveraging his valuable insight and support for the benefit of both new and existing clients and Target as a whole.”
