Singapore – Databricks has appointed Ashraf Safdar as its Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) financial services go-to-market lead, signalling continued expansion across the region.
He will be based in Singapore and will oversee the company’s market approach for banks, insurers and capital markets firms throughout APJ.
In this role, Ashraf will work with clients and partners to advance the adoption of data and AI across financial institutions. The appointment reflects increased demand within the sector for technology-led modernisation and data-driven operating models.
Ashraf brings more than two decades of experience spanning cloud computing, analytics and financial services. He joins Databricks from Amazon Web Services, where he most recently served as cross-industry sales leader for financial services.
“Across APJ, financial institutions are looking to leverage data and AI to drive growth through hyper-personalised customer engagement, real-time analytics, and AI-driven decisioning, as well as to protect their organisations from risk and fraud,” Ashraf commented.
“I look forward to working closely with our customers and partners to unlock these use cases on Databricks, helping them innovate faster while operating more efficiently and responsibly at scale.”
Earlier in his career, Ashraf held senior roles at HSBC Private Bank, IHS Markit and UBS, with responsibilities covering commercial strategy, risk analytics and large-scale transformation programmes.
Databricks mentioned that financial services represent one of its fastest-growing segments across the region and that dedicated regional leadership is intended to support further growth and closer engagement with clients.
“We’re at an inflexion point that calls for dedicated regional leadership to support this growth,” Junta Nakai, VP and global head of financial services of cybersecurity and public sector at Databricks, stated.
“We continue to invest in APJ to deepen the commitment to our clients in the region. Ashraf’s deep industry expertise will support our customers as we help them navigate a quickly evolving data and AI landscape.”
A number of financial institutions in the region, including National Australia Bank, Optiver, HDFC Bank, Siam Commercial Bank and Techcombank, use the Databricks platform to support activities such as real-time fraud detection, financial crime surveillance, credit risk modelling, regulatory compliance and customer analytics powered by AI.
Customers in APJ will also have access to recent product developments, including Lakebase, a serverless Postgres database designed to support AI agents, and Genie, a conversational assistant intended to enable employees to interact directly with enterprise data.
