Microsoft Hires Former BOA Merrill Lynch Vet As Financial Services VP

'To take full advantage of...a hyper-connected world, more banks are making broader cloud platform choices -- moving beyond infrastructure services -- and extending their cloud investment to productivity, data and AI, and agile customer relationship management services,' says Bill Borden, Microsoft's new corporate VP of financial services

Microsoft has named a former Bank of America Merrill Lynch veteran to lead its go-to-market and solution approach for financial services.

Bill Borden joins Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft as corporate vice president of financial services after 20 years in the industry, including seven at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he last served as a managing director leading its global transactions services strategy, advisory and strategic solutions delivery.

Borden and his team are in London this week to meet with Microsoft partners and customers at Sibos 2019, the annual financial services conference organized by SWIFT, a Belgium-based provider of secure financial messaging services.

It’s a transformative time for the financial services industry, with more banks making broader cloud platform choices beyond infrastructure services to include productivity, data, artificial intelligence and customer relationship management services, Borden said in a blog post today.

“In the fast-changing, tech-driven world banks now live in, they recognize that technology can play a role in helping them meet both their customers’ expectations and challenging regulatory requirements,” he said. “The industry has a tremendous opportunity to accelerate use of cloud and artificial intelligence as a catalyst to improve competitiveness, drive growth, elevate customer experiences and keep ahead of changing regulations and cybersecurity threats.”

Borden replaces Janet Lewis, who was hired in August 2017 to lead the development and execution of Microsoft’s financial services strategy, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed. Lewis’ role included prioritizing industry solutions and their alignment to Microsoft’s partner ecosystem and digital platform, according to her LinkedIn page, which mentions her oversight of a $600,000 annual budget and 23 employees globally, with division revenue of $6 billion. She previously was head of Northeast commercial sales for Amazon Web Services.