Why the Future Belongs to Those Who Embrace Change

Why the Future Belongs to Those Who Embrace Change

What does more than four decades in capital markets teach you about leadership, culture, technology and navigating change?

In this episode of FinTech Focus TV, Harrington Starr CEO Toby Babb sits down with Ray Tierney for a wide-ranging conversation spanning Ray’s 43-year career in financial services and capital markets, his approach to leadership and workplace culture, and his optimism about the opportunities being created by artificial intelligence, automation and emerging technology.

Having held senior positions across some of the biggest names in financial services and financial technology, Ray brings a perspective shaped by decades of industry transformation. But rather than looking backwards, much of the conversation focuses firmly on what comes next.

From AI and humanoid robotics to decentralised finance, quantum computing and entrepreneurship, Ray believes professionals should be looking at technological change as an opportunity to empower themselves rather than something to fear.

It is a message that has particular relevance for the FinTech recruitment and capital markets recruitment landscape today. As technology changes how financial institutions and FinTech businesses operate, the skills organisations require are changing too. Yet throughout the conversation, one point remains consistent: technology alone does not build successful businesses. People, leadership, ownership and culture remain fundamental.

Capital Markets Leadership Built Through More Than 40 Years of Change

Ray’s career in capital markets spans 43 years, beginning at Paine Webber before taking him to First Boston, which later became Credit Suisse, and UBS. A pivotal move came in 1994 when he joined Morgan Stanley, where he would spend almost 18 years.

His time at Morgan Stanley included experience on both the sell side and buy side. Ray ran various distribution groups before spending five years running the execution business globally on the buy side.

That experience also placed him at the heart of capital markets during periods of significant disruption. The 2008 financial crisis transformed the financial services industry and forced institutions to reconsider their structures, priorities and businesses. At Morgan Stanley, Ray describes how the crisis dramatically changed the opportunities available within the area he oversaw as the organisation looked to sell assets.

At the same time, another opportunity emerged.

Ray was recruited to Bloomberg to run Tradebook, its electronic institutional trading platform and broker-dealer. During his time there, he also oversaw its order management system business, Trading Solutions, covering businesses serving the buy side, sell side, fixed income, equities, derivatives and, in some cases, insurance companies.

Across these roles, Ray witnessed first-hand the evolution of trading technology and the growing importance of technology across financial markets. His career demonstrates just how dramatically capital markets technology has developed, while also highlighting a recurring reality for professionals across financial services: careers rarely follow a perfectly predictable path.

Change creates disruption, but it can also create the next opportunity.

FinTech Innovation and the Power of Positive Disruption

By 2017 and 2018, Ray wanted to become more deeply involved in FinTech, moving into advisory and investment positions with businesses including Genesis Global and Street Context.

He describes himself as a strong believer in innovation and “positive disruption”, particularly in the relationship between emerging FinTech companies and established financial institutions.

One of the changes Ray has witnessed over the past decade is greater collaboration between innovators, start-ups and incumbents. Rather than viewing FinTech disruption purely as a battle between new entrants and traditional financial services organisations, the industry has increasingly demonstrated how established firms and technology businesses can work together.

This collaboration is critical to the evolution of financial technology. Financial institutions possess scale, market experience, infrastructure and established client relationships, while FinTech businesses can bring new technology, specialist expertise and alternative ways of solving long-standing problems.

For Harrington Starr, this evolution is highly relevant to the FinTech recruitment market. As the boundaries between financial services and technology continue to blur, firms increasingly need professionals who understand both worlds. Building successful technology teams in financial services requires more than technical expertise alone; businesses need people who understand markets, products, clients and the challenges technology is ultimately being built to solve.

Ray’s own career reflects that intersection between financial markets, technology, people and innovation.

Leadership, Integration and Creating a Strong Workplace Culture

In 2021, Ray was approached by Broadridge following its acquisition of Itiviti. Initially joining as a senior advisor reporting to CEO Tim Gokey, Ray was brought in to support the integration.

He describes his initial position almost as being a “marriage counsellor”, helping bring the Itiviti team into the wider Broadridge organisation while ensuring people felt welcomed and comfortable.

His responsibilities quickly expanded. Ray became involved in integration and stability, establishing roadmaps, developing strategic direction and reducing attrition. Within months, what had begun as an advisory role evolved into Ray stepping in to lead the business.

From June 2021 until July 2024, he served as CEO and President of Itiviti, later Broadridge Trading and Connectivity Solutions.

The experience reinforces one of the central themes of the episode: transformation is as much about people as it is about strategy.

Acquisitions, integrations and technological change can all look compelling on paper. But successful execution ultimately depends on whether people understand the direction of the business, feel part of the journey and are given the environment required to succeed.

Before leaving, Ray made bringing in his replacement a priority, recruiting Frank Troise to take the organisation forward. It is an example of leadership being about more than personal success; it is also about preparing organisations and people for what comes next.

Why Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast

When Toby asks Ray about his philosophy around culture, his answer is immediate: “culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

Ray believes culture starts at the top.

Employees throughout an organisation can embrace and reinforce a company’s culture, but leadership must establish the foundations. Without a clearly defined culture, even the strongest strategy can struggle to deliver sustainable results.

A central part of Ray’s philosophy is ownership.

He argues that people should see themselves as owners of the outcomes they are responsible for, regardless of whether they are the CEO or someone who has just joined the company. When individuals understand their responsibilities and take ownership of their results, they become part of the solution.

Without that mentality, Ray suggests people risk becoming agents rather than owners: completing tasks without taking responsibility for the wider outcome.

This distinction matters enormously when businesses think about hiring and retention. In FinTech recruitment, finding technically capable professionals is only one element of building high-performing teams. Organisations also need people who are prepared to take responsibility, collaborate and contribute to the direction of the business.

At the same time, employers need to create environments where ownership is possible.

Ray explains that ownership has two sides. Organisations can create tangible ownership opportunities through mechanisms such as equity, but individuals must also take ownership of their own roles and careers.

FinTech Recruitment and Taking Ownership of Your Career

One of Ray’s clearest messages for professionals is that nobody will manage their career for them.

Sponsors and mentors can be hugely valuable, and Ray encourages people to find them. But ultimately, individuals need to take responsibility for the steps and chapters that shape their careers.

He does not expect someone to know exactly where they want to be in ten years. Instead, careers can evolve every two or three years as people develop new capabilities, encounter opportunities and decide what they want to pursue next.

That message is particularly relevant in the current FinTech jobs and financial technology recruitment market.

The skills businesses require are changing rapidly. Artificial intelligence is becoming more integrated into workflows, capital markets technology continues to evolve, and emerging areas such as tokenisation and decentralised finance are creating new opportunities.

Professionals who actively understand these changes can position themselves differently from those who wait for their role or employer to determine what comes next.

Ray summarises another part of his philosophy with a memorable distinction: he is a fan of “meritocracy, not mediocrity.”

For him, people should have access to opportunities when they are prepared to invest in themselves and work towards them. Businesses, meanwhile, have a responsibility to provide pathways that allow talented people to progress.

The strongest hiring outcomes happen when businesses create meaningful opportunities, and professionals bring the ambition, skills and ownership mentality required to make the most of them.

Great Leadership Means Putting People First

During the conversation, Toby asks Ray what ingredients create a truly great workplace.

Ray starts with leaders and people.

Importantly, he draws a distinction between leadership and management. In Ray’s view, leaders lead people and put those people in positions where they can succeed.

Managers can be responsible for economics, financial performance and ensuring operational requirements are delivered. Leadership requires something additional: investment in the future success of others.

Ray believes successful leaders should develop a selfless mentality. Having already achieved themselves, they should help prepare others to achieve similar success.

He identifies being selfless, genuine and transparent as critical leadership characteristics.

Being genuine means not hiding who you are as a leader. Ray describes his own personality as passionate, energetic, direct and prepared to roll up his sleeves. Rather than creating an artificial leadership persona, he believes authenticity has served him throughout his career.

Transparency is equally important because it creates trust.

That does not mean every employee needs access to every piece of confidential information. Instead, employees should understand the organisation’s plan, how it intends to execute that plan and how it is progressing.

Ray distils effective organisational behaviour into three areas: collaboration, communication and coordination. Master those three dynamics, he argues, and an organisation has a strong chance of succeeding.

AI Jobs and Why Technology Should Empower People

The conversation then turns towards one of the biggest questions affecting FinTech, recruitment and the wider future of work: artificial intelligence.

Ray and Toby discuss the fear surrounding AI-driven job displacement and the sensationalism that can accompany predictions about mass redundancies.

Ray takes a very different perspective.

Despite being an investor in humanoid robotics and having a strong interest in AI, he does not view these technologies simply as mechanisms for replacing people.

Instead, his philosophy is to “embrace to empower.”

Ray points towards ageing demographics and labour shortages across major economies as part of the wider context for automation and robotics. Technology can complement the human workforce rather than simply substitute it.

He sees humanoid robots, automation, data and analytics as tools that can expand what people and organisations are capable of achieving.

It is a perspective with significant implications for AI recruitment and FinTech hiring.

The question for many professionals may not be whether AI will directly replace their job, but whether someone who understands how to use AI effectively will be able to work more productively, solve problems faster or create more value.

Ray’s advice is not that everybody needs to become a technologist or scientist. Instead, people should educate themselves sufficiently to understand how technology could affect their careers and lives.

Even where AI is not fundamental to a particular job, it may support everyday activities such as managing schedules, handling emails or improving personal productivity.

Ignoring the technology entirely could mean ignoring the opportunity it creates.

Capital Markets Technology Has Always Required Adaptation

For Ray, adapting to technological disruption is not a new challenge.

He reflects on the development of electronic technology within equities and how regulatory change helped push technology to the forefront of that market.

Ray does not describe himself as a technologist. Instead, when technology became increasingly important, he chose to embrace it, adapt and use it to his advantage when working with clients.

That experience informs his attitude towards AI today.

Financial markets have repeatedly evolved through regulation, technology and structural change. Professionals have continually needed to learn new systems, understand new market dynamics and adjust how they work.

AI may be a major technological shift, but the requirement to adapt is familiar.

For organisations hiring across capital markets technology, software engineering, data, product and other specialist areas, adaptability is becoming increasingly valuable. Technical expertise remains important, but the ability to learn and respond to changing technology can determine how relevant those skills remain over time.

The Future of Work Could Create Extraordinary Opportunities

Rather than focusing on what AI might remove, Ray is excited by what emerging technology could create.

His current interests include artificial intelligence, space exploration, humanoid robotics and quantum computing. He is also exploring opportunities outside traditional finance, including areas connected with decentralised finance and tokenisation.

He believes the next 20 to 25 years could bring extraordinary technological progress.

Ray encourages younger professionals in particular to recognise the scale of the opportunity in front of them.

Toby builds on this point by considering how AI could accelerate early careers. Someone only a few years into their professional journey may have access to tools that allow them to achieve significantly more, significantly earlier.

The same applies to entrepreneurship.

As Toby observes, the cost of starting something has fallen dramatically. Technology can give individuals access to capabilities that previously required larger teams, greater resources and years of experience.

Ray agrees that this represents a major opportunity.

Instead of assuming that young people face a future defined by job displacement, the conversation considers the opposite possibility: technology could allow them to progress faster, experiment earlier and create businesses more easily.

Financial Technology Recruitment in an Era of AI and Change

For Harrington Starr, the themes explored in this FinTech Focus TV episode closely reflect conversations happening throughout financial technology recruitment.

Businesses across FinTech and capital markets are deciding how to use AI, where to invest in technology and what skills their teams will need for the future. At the same time, professionals are evaluating how technological change will affect their careers and where new opportunities may emerge.

Ray’s perspective suggests that the answer is not to choose between technology and people.

Successful organisations need both.

AI, automation and emerging technology can improve productivity and create new possibilities, but businesses still require strong leadership, effective workplace culture, communication, collaboration and talented people prepared to take ownership.

For employers, that means hiring cannot focus exclusively on technical requirements. Building effective FinTech teams means considering the behaviours, leadership qualities and adaptability that enable people to thrive through change.

For candidates, it means career development increasingly requires curiosity. Professionals do not necessarily need to become AI engineers, but understanding how AI, data and automation are changing financial services could become an important part of remaining competitive.

The future of FinTech recruitment will therefore be shaped not only by new technologies but by how effectively people learn to work alongside them.

Why Embracing Change Could Define the Next Era of FinTech

Ray Tierney’s career has already taken him through more than four decades of change across capital markets, trading technology, financial services and FinTech.

His experience spans major institutions, market disruption, the financial crisis, the growth of electronic trading, FinTech innovation, acquisitions, leadership and now the rise of artificial intelligence and emerging technology.

Yet the central lesson of this FinTech Focus TV conversation is remarkably consistent.

Change should not automatically be feared.

People can take ownership of their careers. Leaders can build cultures that allow others to succeed. Organisations can combine innovation with human talent. And professionals can learn to use technology as a source of empowerment rather than viewing it purely as a threat.

The future of finance will undoubtedly look different from its past. AI will change workflows. Automation will change how tasks are completed. Robotics, quantum computing, decentralised finance and tokenisation could create opportunities that are still difficult to fully predict.

But technology is only part of that future.

The organisations that succeed will still need leaders capable of building trust, teams prepared to take ownership and people willing to keep learning.

For professionals navigating FinTech careers and for businesses competing for financial technology talent, Ray’s message offers a useful principle for approaching what comes next: embrace change, understand the technology and find out how it can empower you.