Dubai, United Arab Emirates, January 2026 — Manish Maakan has taken on an expanded leadership mandate as Executive President & Group Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at Intellect Design Arena Ltd, while continuing to serve as Chief Executive Officer – Intellect Wholesale Banking. In this dual role, he will act as the senior executive sponsor for Intellect’s customers globally, with direct ownership of long-term relationships and outcomes, and will lead the company’s global revenue growth agenda across markets, products and customer segments with a strategic focus on Depth, Distribution and Scale.
In his current elevation at Intellect Design Arena, Manish Maakan brings more than a decade of transformational leadership within the group. As Executive President & Group CRO, he is accountable for global go-to-market strategy, platform-led and SaaS-driven growth, enterprise deal leadership, revenue governance and partner-led expansion—ensuring that commercial growth remains tightly aligned with long-term customer value, trust and scalable outcomes. He continues to serve as CEO – Intellect Wholesale Banking, leading AI-first, composable banking platforms powered by eMACH.ai and Purple Fabric.
Earlier, Manish served as Chief Executive Officer – iGTB, where he led large-scale platform transformation programs for global banks and co-architected the organization’s platform-first, outcome-driven banking vision. Prior to that, he held senior leadership roles at Polaris Software Lab (Intellect) as Partner, President & Global Business Head and Partner & EVP – Retail Banking, strengthening global banking platforms and international market expansion.
At the foundation of his career, Manish built deep technology and transformation leadership through senior roles at GE Money as CIO, Whirlpool Corporation as Solution Delivery Leader, Ernst & Young as Management Consultant and IBM as Team Leader – AS/400 Quality Assurance, developing a rare blend of strategy, architecture and execution capability.
About Intellect Design Arena Ltd
Intellect Design Arena Ltd is a global leader in enterprise-grade financial technology, delivering composable and intelligent platforms across Wholesale Banking, Consumer Banking, Central Banking, Wealth, Capital Markets, Treasury, Insurance and Digital Technology for Commerce in 61 countries. Its flagship platforms eMACH.ai, Purple Fabric and iTurmeric enable modular, outcome-driven digital transformation, serving more than 500 financial institutions worldwide.
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