By Emmanuel Oluebube, Correspondent UK

IDC Financial Insights  has announced the hiring of three new analysts for the European IDC Financial Insights team: George Briford, Associate Research Director; Patrick Van Brussel, Research Director, and Szilard Farkasdi, Research Manager.

George Briford is a highly experienced financial services professional. In his 20+ year career he has worked for financial institutions including ABN AMRO, Citibank (UK), Komerční banka (Societe Generale Group), and UniCredit Bank, and management consulting firms such as Capgemini and Accenture.

For the past four years, George has been with PwC Advisory working with financial institutions on digital transformation projects, strategy and operating model design, omni-channel strategy and large-scale implementations using agile methods. He worked for clients in Central & Eastern Europe/Austria, Russia, and Central & East Asia. Briford is based in Prague, Czech Republic, and reports to Tom Zink. He will co-lead the IDC European Banking DX Strategies Programme covering commercial banking (retail & corporate) and specifically Compliance, Risk, Core banking, Open Banking, Lending, Savings, and Customer Experience.

Patrick van Brussel has been working in the retail and commercial non-life insurance industry for more than 30 years as a senior manager, initially with Zurich and later with Allianz. He gained international experience in local subsidiaries and at group headquarters, having worked in Belgium, France, the U.S., Germany, and Italy.

During his career he has covered a wide range of positions across multiple functions, including product development, sales, underwriting, portfolio management, claims management, and antifraud. Since 2009 he has been primarily involved in the development and management of IoT/telematics products and services in the insurance sector.

Patrick will be the key expert for the insurance industry and will lead the Worldwide Insurance Digital Transformation Strategies advisory service. He is based in Milan, Italy, and reports to Tom Zink. His focus areas in the insurance sector are Pricing, Sales, Underwriting, Portfolio/Contract Management, Risk Prevention, Claims Management, Antifraud UW & CL, Legal and Compliance, Core/Legacy transformation, Reinsurance, and Insuretech.

Szilard Farkasdi has several years of international experience in the banking and financial services industry. His latest role was with McKinsey & Company, where he was conducting strategic consulting and benchmarking projects with top-tier global retail and corporate banks. Szilard was advising banks on efficiency improvement, strategy development, digital transformation, multichannel strategy, and so on. Prior to McKinsey, Szilard worked as an investment banking analyst with Commerzbank, focusing on asset solutions and structured finance. Due to previous experience and personal background, Szilard has a strong knowledge of the CEE & Russian banking markets.

Szilard is based in London, UK and reports to Tom Zink. He will co-lead IDC’s European Banking DX Strategies Program, with special attention to retail and corporate banking and topics such as Payments, Risk, Core banking, Omnichannel strategy, Lending, Savings, Customer Experience, Non-banking products, and Automation.

The Head of IDC Financial Insights Europe, Thomas Zink says: “The new Financial Insights team is a real force to be reckoned with, given its 75 years of accumulated experience and analysts from diverse backgrounds. This rounded mix will enable us to drive our financial services research in new ways, balancing our coverage of the many emerging themes, such as IOT, analytics, and CX, with the necessity to transform and modernize the old without disrupting business.”