Jiri Manas is an accomplished and award-winning innovation and change management leader in the banking, finance, and IT sectors. He has a strategic and analytical mindset, coupled with a customer-first approach. Jiri has held positions at General Electric, Erste Group, and Homecredit Group, where his digital innovations have been recognized for creating numerous world, country, or business ‘firsts’. He is also an advocate of data democracy, believing companies should facilitate effective decision-making by giving employees access to meaningful data. Jiri is a CISSP and CRISC certified, and he holds an ITIL certification from HP. He studied secondary education at SPSE Jecna and received a Master's degree from Czech Technical University in Prague. He is currently the Regional CIO & CTO of Central Europe at Tesco, formerly serving as CIO & CTO at Home Credit Vietnam, COO & Board Member at MOPET CZ - Mobile Payments Startup, Head of Digital IT & Innovations at Erste Group - Ceska sporitelna, a.s., and Head of Operations at Erste Group - s IT Solutions. Jiri has experience in driving cultural improvement, liaising with global financial regulators for technology innovations, and leading people, operations, and business development.