Chief Data & AI Officer · AI Leader

Bahaa'
Awartany

~20 years pioneering Data, Analytics & AI across the banking sector — deploying GenAI, LLMs, and Agentic AI solutions that move the needle.

GenAI & LLMs Agentic AI ML/AI Strategy Data Leadership FinTech
Get in Touch LinkedIn ↗
~20Years Experience
$10MRevenue & Cost Impact
$4BPortfolio Expansion
01

Impact

$10M
Revenue & Savings
Delivered via Data, Analytics & AI strategies in partnership with business stakeholders across banking entities.
$4B
Portfolio Expansion
Accelerated Consumer & Corporate Banking growth through advanced analytics, ML initiatives, and sales optimization.
10M+
Customers Served
Led analytics across FAB, Arab Bank, Capital Bank, DIB, EIB 10M+ customer base spanning Mass, Premium, Elite, Wealth, Private Banking, Corporate, Business Banking segments.
5
Group Entities
Established the Group Data & AI Office for Capital Bank Group spanning Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia & NeoBank.
02

About

Who I Am

AI Pioneer.
Banking executive.

A senior executive with ~20 years of leadership in Data, Analytics, and AI across leading banks in the UAE and Jordan. I specialize in building Group-level Data & AI Offices from the ground up, formulating strategy, establishing governance, and deploying modern data architectures including Data Lakehouses, ETL/ELT, Event Streaming, and ML/AI platforms.

I pioneered GenAI and LLM innovation in banking, developing self-hosted AI solutions on Nvidia HGX H200 servers using open-source models (LLaMA, DeepSeek, Mistral, Qwen) and commercial models (OpenAI GPT, Gemini, Anthropic Claude). Built RAG-powered knowledge bases, NLP platforms for executive KPI querying, and Agentic AI solutions using Azure AI Foundry, Langchain, LangGraph, CrewAI and FastAPI.

Chair of bank Data & AI Committee. Member of Management, IT Steering, Risk, Sustainability, and Products & Services Committees. Officially endorsed as Exceptional Talent by UK Tech Nation. Selected as an IBM Champion — one of 1,131 globally recognized.

IBM Champion
UK Tech Nation — Exceptional Talent
CDMP · ACMA · CGMA
Microsoft Azure AI Certified
SAFe® 6 Practitioner
03

AI & Technology Stack

Generative AI & LLMs
LLaMA / DeepSeek / Mistral / QwenOpen Source
OpenAI GPTCommercial
Anthropic ClaudeCommercial
Google GeminiCommercial
RAG — Knowledge BasesArchitecture
Nvidia HGX H200 (Self-Hosted)Infrastructure
Agentic AI & Data Platforms
Azure AI FoundryPlatform
LangchainOrchestration
Azure AI SearchRetrieval
Python FastAPIAPI Layer
Azure DatabricksData + ML
IBM Cloud Pak for DataML Platform
Data & ML Engineering
Python · R · SASLanguages
Azure Data Factory · Informatica IDMCETL/ELT
Confluent KafkaStreaming
IBM Netezza · Azure DatabricksWarehouse
Power BI · Spotfire · Qlik · TableauBI
Watson ML · Scikit-learn · XGBoostML
04

Experience

Aug 2025 — Present
Chief Data & Analytics Officer
Emirates Investment Bank | Al Futtaim Financial Services · Dubai
Leading the Data & AI strategy, architecture, and governance for the Financial Services division. Partnering with global consulting firms to deploy an enterprise AI platform on Microsoft Azure & OpenAI stack. Driving measurable business value through AI/ML adoption and data-driven decision making.
Azure OpenAIAI StrategyData Governance
Sep 2021 — Aug 2025
Group Chief Data Officer
Capital Bank Group · Amman, Jordan
Deployed self-hosted GenAI on Nvidia HGX H200 with open-source LLMs. Built RAG knowledge bases, NLP KPI platforms, and Agentic AI solutions. Established Group Data & AI Office across 5 entities. Managed full enterprise data technology stack.
LLMsRAGAgentic AIH200
Jun 2024 — Jul 2025
Co-Founder
BricksandBytes.ai · Dubai
Built transformational AI tools for business growth — AI-powered customer discovery, inquiry generation, and intelligent conversation management solutions.
AI ProductsFounder
Aug 2016 — Aug 2021
SVP & Head of Business Analytics
First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) · UAE
Led Data & Analytics for the UAE's largest bank covering 3M+ customers. Built ML models for cross-sell, NBO/NBA, fraud detection, and credit decisioning. Managed 30 data scientists, VPs, and analysts.
ML ModelsNBO/NBAFraud AI
Jan 2012 — Jul 2016
AVP — Strategic Planning & Analytics
Dubai Islamic Bank · Dubai
Led predictive modeling across 1.7M+ customers. Built propensity models for cross-sell, anti-attrition, and spend stimulation using regression, classification trees, and clustering. Managed team of 15.
Predictive ModelsML
Nov 2008 — Dec 2011
Business Intelligence — Founding Team
Al Hilal Bank · Abu Dhabi
One of two experts who built the bank's entire BI architecture from scratch since launch. Worked directly with CEO's office to deliver enterprise-wide analytics and reporting infrastructure.
BI ArchitectureStartup
Sep 2006 — Oct 2008
Business Analytics & MIS
Arab Bank · Amman
Handling Analytics requirements of Retail Banking Group in the largest bank in Jordan overseeing more than 10 countries, more than 100 branches and 500K customers.
BI ArchitectureBusiness Analytics
05

Certifications & Recognition

01
Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP)
DAMA International
02
Azure AI Fundamentals Certified
Microsoft
03
ACMA & CGMA
CIMA & AICPA
04
SAFe® 6 Practitioner
Scaled Agile, Inc.
05
IBM Champion — Global Recognition
IBM · 1 of 1,131 Worldwide
06
Executive Education
LBS · MIT · UC Berkeley · Queen's
06

Contact

Let's build something
meaningful.

Open to strategic conversations, board advisory roles, and executive collaborations in Data, AI & Digital Transformation.

Emailbahaa.awartany@gmail.com
Phone+971 50 810 2733
LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/awartany ↗
LocationDubai, United Arab Emirates