The Consulting Report is pleased to announce The Top Financial Services Consultants and Leaders of 2026. Financial services itself is broad—comprising banking, payments, insurance, wealth and asset management, and capital markets. The sector is essential to how an economy functions, and by extension, so is the work of this year’s awardees. They help shape everything from digital transformation at major financial institutions to innovation in payments and the systems that keep financial firms running at scale.

At its heart, the financial sector intermediates. It connects capital, risk, and decision-making through systems that are deeply embedded and difficult to change carelessly. That is where these consultants and leaders come in. They help institutions modernize old infrastructure, respond to regulation, integrate new technologies, and rethink how the business runs without losing the stability the system depends on. Ultimately, they help preserve the trust that underpins all financial services.

Among this year’s awardees, Raman Rai, Managing Partner for Financial Services at Deloitte Canada, brings more than 17 years of global banking experience at HSBC into her current role, where she leads strategy across banking, insurance, and investment management while advising senior executives on transformation. David Donovan, Executive Vice President at Publicis Sapient, draws on a background that includes 14 years at Fidelity to guide financial institutions through digital transformation, with particular depth across capital markets, trading, and enterprise platform design. 

Sanjay Deshpande, Executive Vice President at Virtusa, stands out for building and expanding banking and financial services businesses across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific, now leading growth and execution for the firm’s banking and emerging industries business in the Americas.

Through an in-depth evaluation of their career achievements and transformative work, these individuals have emerged as leaders shaping the future of financial services. Please join us in celebrating The Top Financial Services Consultants and Leaders of 2026.

Raman Rai
Firm: Deloitte Canada
Title: Managing Partner

Raman Rai is the Managing Partner for Financial Services, responsible for Deloitte’s four financial services sectors: Banking and Capital Markets, Insurance, Investment Management, and Real Estate. Raman works alongside a distinguished team of industry leaders to define and implement Deloitte’s strategic vision, driving innovation and shaping world-class financial services. Raman is also a trusted advisor to senior executives, offering expert counsel on transformative initiatives and industry-leading best practices. Since joining Deloitte in 2017, she has held key leadership roles, including serving as a global lead client partner, financial services consulting leader, and global commercial banking co-leader. 

Prior to Deloitte, Raman spent over 17 years with the HSBC Group, during which she worked in over 20 countries. Throughout her tenure with the bank, she held various leadership positions in commercial banking, including global head of business banking, senior vice president and head of global liquidity and cash management, and European regional head of commercial insurance. These experiences deepened her conviction in the transformative power of financial services to drive purposeful growth and innovation on a global scale.

Raman is a firm believer in the power of diversity and inclusivity. Having worked across the globe, she brings a unique perspective and thrives in culturally complex environments and is always on the lookout for opportunities to mentor others and advocate for inclusive leadership. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business commerce from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University.

Renuka Kambli
Firm: Cognizant
Title: Senior Partner

Renuka Kambli is a Senior Partner at Cognizant Consulting, where she leads the Banking, Lending, and Payments Consulting practice for North America. In this role, Renuka is responsible for driving strategic growth, shaping industry-leading transformation initiatives, and delivering innovative solutions that empower financial institutions to succeed in an increasingly complex and digital-first landscape. Her leadership is defined by a sharp focus on harnessing artificial intelligence to solve critical challenges and unlock new opportunities within the financial services sector.

With more than two decades of experience in consulting and technology services, Renuka brings deep domain expertise in financial services and a proven record of leading large-scale enterprise transformations. She partners closely with global banking clients to modernize core systems, reimagine customer experiences, and unlock new revenue streams through digital innovation—with AI as a central catalyst.

Her recent work centers on Agentic AI initiatives for the banking and financial services sector, guiding clients to leverage advanced AI technologies for greater operational efficiency and business impact. She helps organizations harness the power of artificial intelligence and data analytics to drive smarter decision-making, enhance risk management, and deliver hyper-personalized customer experiences. She has led strategic and technology transformation for some of the largest financial institutions and provided advisory services for banking, lending, and payments clients, always with an emphasis on the transformative potential of AI.

As a recognized thought leader, Renuka actively contributes to the advancement of banking and lending transformation through published perspectives, executive forums, and strategic engagements with C-suite leaders. Her insights frequently focus on the convergence of business and technology, the evolution of fintech ecosystems, and the pivotal role of AI and emerging technologies in shaping the future of financial services. She holds an MBA from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.

David Donovan
Firm: Publicis Sapient
Title: Executive Vice President

David Donovan is Executive Vice President at Publicis Sapient, where he leads enterprise sales across industry verticals in the Americas. Since joining the firm in 2005, he has led strategic initiatives and transformation work for major financial services clients, drawing on 25 years of Wall Street experience, including 14 years at Fidelity, where he served as a technology trading sector leader.

David advises C-suite executives on digital transformation, data science solutions, globalization strategy, cloud adoption and migration, and operational platform design. He also leads some of Publicis Sapient’s largest financial services relationships, helping clients navigate complex digital transformation efforts across capital markets, investment banking, retail banking, and asset management.

Over the course of his career, David has worked closely with financial institutions on business, regulatory, operational, and technology challenges, with experience spanning trading, risk management, and enterprise platform design. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business and finance from Boston College.

Jerome Dumaine
Firm: Cognizant
Title: Banking, Financial Services & Insurance Leader, France

Jerome Dumaine leads global capital markets strategy and solutions at Cognizant within the firm’s banking, financial services, and insurance business. For the past 35 years, he has helped global financial services firms define strategies and implement solutions to gain flexibility for the digital future, deepen engagement with customers, improve outcomes, and increase their profitability.

As a vice president, Jerome most recently oversaw Cognizant's French banking and capital markets portfolio including marquee global firms. Previously, he led the development of Cognizant’s points of view on capital markets industry topics, and of corresponding solutions with various third-party vendors. Recent areas of focus include shortening settlement cycles, intelligent operations, agentic AI platforms, ESG finance and regulatory disclosure, and the future of market infrastructure providers. 

Prior to joining Cognizant, Jerome built his digital transformation skills as a professional services leader and management consulting partner at Fenergo, FIS, Accenture, and IBM Global Business Services, where he supported major global banks and market infrastructure providers in the areas of operations efficiencies, straight-through processing, and regulatory driven transformation, including early T+1 readiness assessment and planning efforts for the U.S. securities industry. 

An engineer by training, Jerome has a passion to help his customers achieve the business benefits they expect from digital initiatives. He is an expert at leading multidisciplinary teams to deploy cutting-edge architectures and build long-term, scalable processes to ensure success and growth. He holds a master’s degree in engineering from the National School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics of Grenoble and completed executive education at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business.

Mary Zayats
Firm: ScienceSoft
Title: Head of Technology & Competency Development, Financial IT Principal Consultant

Mary Zayats is Head of Technology and Competency Development and Financial IT Principal Consultant at ScienceSoft, a Texas-based IT consulting company serving mid-sized and large enterprises, including Fortune 500 businesses.

She leads ScienceSoft’s Technology and Competency Center of Excellence, helping align consulting, business analysis, and engineering teams to deliver high-impact solutions for enterprise clients. Mary also plays a key role in the company’s AI strategy and innovation committee, supporting the responsible and effective adoption of AI across consulting and engineering.

Since starting her IT consulting career in 2015, Mary has contributed to a wide range of financial technology initiatives, including enterprise BI platforms for financial analytics, mobile banking apps with more than 3 million users, and automated transaction processing platforms for banks and payment providers. Several of the mobile banking solutions she helped design and deliver were recognized among the top banking apps for iOS and Android.

By 2024, Mary was leading a team of more than 40 business analysts and consultants and helped grow ScienceSoft’s business analysis function into one of the company’s strongest delivery units.

In 2025, Mary became one of the key leaders behind ScienceSoft’s organizational transformation. The company shifted from a technology-based structure to four outcome-based power centers: the PMO, the Architecture and Solutions CoE, the Technology and Competency CoE, and the Competency Pool. As Head of Technology and Competency Development, she helped shape and launch this model, ensuring teams were prepared for each client’s workflows, technology environment, and regulatory demands, especially in BFSI and healthcare. Within the first six months, the new structure improved the speed and quality of management decision-making, strengthened accountability for project outcomes, and enhanced overall delivery quality.

Mathew Tierney
Firm: Grant Thornton
Title: Head of Insurance industry

Mathew Tierney serves as Head of the Insurance Industry at Grant Thornton Advisors LLC, where he leads the firm’s insurance practice and drives its strategic growth across the firm. Based in Philadelphia and New York, he oversees operations and client service delivery for one of the firm’s fastest growing industry groups. He also serves as the Global Insurance Practice Leader and is a member of the Global Business Consulting Leadership Team for Grant Thornton International.

In these roles, Mathew is focused on shaping industry-specific solutions, building high-performing teams, and delivering consistent, high-quality outcomes for global clients. His career spans roles across the United States, United Kingdom, Bermuda and Germany, where he has advised leading insurance organizations and monetary authorities. He brings deep expertise across property and casualty, life, and health insurance, with a strong track record in business transformation, operational improvement and complex systems and process reengineering.

Mathew joined Grant Thornton through the firm’s acquisition of Smart Business Advisory and Consulting in 2011 and has since played a key role in expanding its insurance capabilities. He previously served on the Board of Grant Thornton LLP and continues to contribute to the broader industry as a board member of the Society of Insurance Financial Management, a global organization of CFOs and professional services leaders focused on advancing finance within the insurance sector.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Widener University and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Executive Leadership Program.

Joffrey Martinez
Firm: Artefact
Title: Managing Partner, Global Head of Financial Services

Joffrey Martinez established Artefact’s Financial Services practice in 2022 and has since grown it into one of the firm’s top global sectors, serving institutions across banking, insurance, asset management, payments, and fintech. The practice has also contributed to Artefact’s growth past the billion-dollar valuation mark. In a field where many practices plateau, Joffrey has built one through organic growth and targeted global acquisitions.

Alongside building the practice, Joffrey has led large-scale AI and data transformations across financial services. His recent work has focused on agentic AI, helping clients in retail banking, insurance, and asset management embed generative and agentic AI into core workflows while operating within the sector’s strict risk standards. By attracting senior talent from around the world, he has also expanded the practice’s global reach. Trusted by CEOs and boardrooms, he has established himself as a prominent voice on AI transformation in financial services.

Before Artefact, Joffrey worked in private equity and strategy at BearingPoint, then led AI for IBM Consulting France. He holds a master’s degree from KEDGE Business School, completed executive education at École Polytechnique, and serves as a board member.

Sanjay Deshpande
Firm: Virtusa
Title: Executive Vice President & Head of Banking and Emerging Industries

Sanjay Deshpande Sanjay Deshpande is the Executive Vice President and Americas Business Head for Banking, Telecom, Retail, and Emerging verticals at Virtusa. Throughout Sanjay’s career across four continents, he has built a reputation as a strategic and growth-oriented leader, transforming businesses through complexity reduction and profitable execution. As the Head of Banking and Emerging Industries at Virtusa, Sanjay leads the region’s overall P&L management and business growth strategy, with a particular focus on expanding the company’s footprint in financial services and telecommunications. Under Sanjay’s leadership, the Americas Banking and Financial Services unit grew by over 110% between 2019 and 2023, making it the most successful business unit within the organization.

Before stepping into his current Americas leadership role, Sanjay was based in London, where he led Virtusa’s banking business across EMEA, APAC, and Canada, driving a 120% growth rate and securing numerous large-scale deal wins. Prior to joining Virtusa through its acquisition of Polaris Consulting & Services, Sanjay served as the chief sales officer for the Americas at Polaris and was a board member of its Canadian entity. During his decade-long tenure there, he was instrumental in growing the flagship universal banking product business by over 50x. Earlier in his career, Sanjay established a successful contact center and communications technology start-up for a leading conglomerate in Dubai, catering to major financial and telecom institutions across the Middle East and Africa.

Sanjay holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in business administration. He has also completed executive education in disruptive strategy at Harvard Business School, sustainable finance at the University of Cambridge, financial markets from Yale University, and AI applications for growth at Kellogg. He is an advocate for diversity, inclusion, and sustainability in the corporate landscape. Sanjay actively pursues a culture of continuous learning and unlearning, leveraging his global network of clients and partners to solve complex industrial challenges.

Alex Birkin
Firm: EY
Title: Managing Partner

Alex Birkin is Managing Partner and EY Global Financial Services Consulting Leader. In this role, he works with the firm’s financial services consulting leaders around the world and leads a team of 25,000 consultants providing business, risk, people, and technology services to clients across banking, capital markets, insurance, and wealth and asset management.

Alex previously served as EY’s global and EMEIA financial services consulting leader and, before that, as EMEIA wealth and asset management industry leader and global consulting leader. Over the course of his career at EY, which began in 1997, he has advised clients on strategy, digital transformation, customer experience, post-merger integration, regulatory change, and risk management. He became a partner in 2005.

Outside the firm, Alex served on the CFA Institute Board from 2018 to 2024, including as chair of the Audit and Finance Committee and on the Strategy working group. He holds a bachelor’s degree in management sciences from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

Kurtis Babczenko
Firm: PwC
Title: Global Financial Services and Banking and Capital Markets Leader

Kurtis Babczenko is PwC’s Global Financial Services and Banking and Capital Markets Leader. He has more than 27 years of experience in financial services and works with many of the world’s largest retail and investment banks, asset managers, and insurance companies. In his current role, he helps lead the firm’s strategy for supporting clients through transformation, technology adoption, and regulatory change.

Before taking on his current position, Kurtis led PwC’s global banking and capital markets sector and served as the firm’s U.S. finance transformation leader. Over the course of his career, he has focused on large-scale transformation, process improvement, organizational change, and the implementation of advanced technology. He has also advised CFOs on finance transformation and worked with major financial institutions on multi-year global change programs.

Earlier in his career, Kurtis led PwC’s U.S. Banking and Capital Markets Advisory practice and the firm’s combined risk and finance competency, with work spanning operational improvement, project management, systems evaluation and selection, and large-scale technology implementations. He joined PwC in 1996. Kurtis holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from UCLA and an MBA in information systems from DePaul University.