Witad Awards 2020: Operational risk management professional of the year—Sihem Mouelhi, Elucidate

Sihem Mouelhi, COO of Elucidate, a Berlin-based startup founded in 2018 that describes itself as a digital financial crime risk rating agency, wins the operational risk management professional of the year category in this year’s Women in Technology and Data Awards. Startups are organizationally different from corporates, and while the threat of existential crisis is often not far away, they also have their benefits, chief among which is the ability for employees to set the tone of the business on multiple levels from the outset. “The benefit of working in a startup is that you get a chance to set the culture of diversity [of the organization] right from the start as opposed to trying to change the culture within an already-established firm,” Mouelhi explains. “That means you are more able to do things right and incorporate them into the company’s DNA. You can therefore establish a culture where people can express themselves freely, where you can start hiring a diverse workforce from the start, and where conversations about diversity can be had openly. That makes a big difference.”
Given that Elucidate is a startup, it is unsurprising that Mouelhi’s proudest achievement at the firm is the role she played in developing its minimum viable product, allowing it to go to market with a product as soon as possible. “When I joined, we were still building the product—the Elucidate FinCrime Index (EFI)—more or less from scratch,” she explains. “We’ve gone from an idea to a piece of software to actually selling a product within a year.”
Now, she says, her focus is on scaling and building a platform such that it becomes an industry standard.
When it comes to the individuals who played instrumental, influencing roles in her career, Mouelhi lists three—all men, she is quick to point out—two of whom she met during her consulting days, while the other she worked alongside at one of the industry’s largest investment banks. “I’ve had a few [mentors]. Shane Riedel, our CEO, has been very influential, as I started my career working on financial crime with him at Citigroup,” she says. “Antony Smyth, a partner at EY who I worked with in the past, taught me a lot about working effectively with clients, while Markus Bender, who I worked with at Capco, was someone I learned a lot from on structured problem solving.”
Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.
To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@waterstechnology.com or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.waterstechnology.com/subscribe
You are currently unable to print this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. Printing this content is for the sole use of the Authorised User (named subscriber), as outlined in our terms and conditions - https://www.infopro-insight.com/terms-conditions/insight-subscriptions/
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. Copying this content is for the sole use of the Authorised User (named subscriber), as outlined in our terms and conditions - https://www.infopro-insight.com/terms-conditions/insight-subscriptions/
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
More on Awards & Rankings
BST Awards 2023 winner's interview: S&P Global Market Intelligence (managed data service)
S&P Global Market Intelligence won the best managed data service in this year's Buy-Side Technology Awards.
AFTAs 2023: Most innovative third-party technology vendor (data, data services & data management)—SmartStream Technologies
Project: Reference Data Utility (RDU)
AFTAs 2023: Best IT team (sell side)—Goldman Sachs
Team: Goldman Sachs Marquee
AFTAs 2023: Best new technology introduced over the last 12 months (AI & machine learning)—CompatibL
Project: CompatibL AI
AFTAs 2023: All the winners and why they won
Here are the winners of the 30 categories in the 2023 American Financial Technology Awards. This year's multi-category winners are JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Northern Trust and Wells Fargo.
AFTAs 2023: Best IT team (buy side)—TCW Group
Team name: Architecture and Engineering Team (AET)
AFTAs 2023: Best third-party technology vendor IT team—Devexperts
Project name: DXtrade XT