Speaker & Transformation Leader · London, UK

SolimaKhatun

Senior Digital Transformation & Platform Product Leader

Most digital workplace leaders
inherited platforms.
I built them first.

AI in the Workplace Digital Employee Experience Women in Tech Leader Platform & Product Strategy Change & Adoption Copilot & M365
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Solima Khatun
Solima Khatun
Global Product Director · BNY

Career at a Glance

20+
Years in digital workplaceDeveloper → Director, every layer
120k
Largest workforce transformedGlobal enterprise at real scale
10+
Global organisationsBNY · Dentsu · LSEG · BP · Shell +
2003
Started as a developerBuilt before leading
Women in Tech

"A South Asian woman who started coding in 2003 and built her way to global director — in a field still dominated by men. That journey shapes everything."

Solima Khatun
About

Builder.
Leader.
Pioneer.

Why this matters

Solima has been the only woman in the room, the most junior person in the building, and the most senior technologist in the organisation. She speaks to what that means for building inclusive digital workplaces.

Solima Khatun is a Senior Digital Transformation and Platform Product Leader with over two decades of experience building the platforms, products and AI-enabled experiences that make work better for employees at scale.

She started as an intranet developer in 2003 — writing code, designing architecture, and delivering a staff and student intranet and Learning Management System from the ground up in higher education, at a time when women in technical roles were a significant minority.

From there she built a career across some of the world's most recognised organisations — leading digital employee experience strategy for 70,000 employees at Dentsu, 50,000 at LSEG, and workforces of up to 120,000 at Barclays, Aviva and beyond.

"I didn't start my career with a seat at the table. I built the table — and then the platform it sat on."

She currently leads BNY's AI-first digital workplace transformation, driving intelligent employee journeys, Copilot adoption and automation at global scale. A Computer Science graduate and full member of the British Computing Society.

2026 – Present
Global Product Director
Bank of New York (BNY)
2021 – 2024
Global Technology Director, Collaboration Platforms
Dentsu International
2019 – 2021
Director, Employee Digital Experience
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG)
2007 – 2019
Senior roles at BP · Shell · Barclays · HSBC · Aviva
PM → Product Owner → Senior Director
2003 – 2007
Intranet Developer → Intranet Editor
Higher Education · Cancer Research UK
Where it all started
Women in Tech & Industry

Representation
beyond the panel.

Solima is a vocal advocate for women in technology, senior leadership and digital transformation — not as a side note, but as a core part of how she leads and speaks.

She brings lived experience of navigating technical and leadership careers as a South Asian woman in industries where both remain underrepresented at senior levels.

17%Women in senior tech leadership globally
20+Years navigating and leading in that gap
🏗️
Started as a Developer
Built technical foundations in 2003 — when women in developer roles were rare, and South Asian women even rarer.
📈
Rose to Global Director
From intranet editor to leading AI-first transformation at a global bank — built through expertise, not inheritance.
🌍
Cross-sector Breadth
Five industries, ten-plus organisations — a perspective few leaders in this space can match.
🎤
Speaks on Inclusion
Available to speak on women in tech leadership, inclusive digital workplaces, and diverse pathways into senior roles.

Organisations Transformed

BNY·Dentsu·LSEG·BP·Shell·Barclays·HSBC·Aviva·Cancer Research UK
Signature Talks

Practitioner-led.
No theory.
All real.

All talks draw from 20+ years of enterprise delivery — real examples, honest lessons, practical frameworks. Available as keynotes, panels, workshops and webinars. Solima also speaks on women in technology leadership.

01

AI at Work: Why Most Organisations Are Solving the Wrong Problem

Why AI adoption programmes are underdelivering — and what the organisations getting it right are doing differently. The answer isn't more technology. It's asking a fundamentally different question about work design.

Keynote · 30–45 min
02

From Platform to Product: The Operating Model Shift That Changes Everything

Enterprise IT has a product problem. Most digital workplace programmes are run as projects with a go-live date. But employee experience doesn't have a go-live date. The case for product thinking as the missing discipline.

Keynote · Workshop
03

The Human Side of AI Adoption: Why Your Change Strategy Matters More Than Your Technology

A practitioner's framework for driving genuine AI behaviour change at scale. Designing use cases employees want, measuring real adoption, and building responsible AI governance that means something.

Keynote · Panel
Featured · Women in Tech

Building From the Ground Up: A Woman's Path to Tech Leadership

An honest account of navigating a technical career as a South Asian woman — from writing code in 2003 to leading global AI transformation at a major bank. What it actually takes, what has changed, and what still needs to.

Keynote · Fireside Chat · Panel
Point of View

Five beliefs that
shape everything.

Not opinions formed at conferences. Convictions built from 20+ years of building, breaking and improving enterprise technology — and navigating that journey as a woman in a field that still needs to do better.

On AI

AI copilots are features. The real transformation is redesigning the work around them — most organisations haven't started.

On Adoption

Digital workplace projects don't fail at implementation. They fail at adoption. Technology is the easy part.

On Product Thinking

Product thinking is the missing operating model for enterprise IT. Until you treat employees as users, nothing gets better.

On DEX

The organisations winning at DEX aren't doing more — they're doing less, better. Consolidation beats proliferation.

On Representation

Diverse teams don't just build better products — they build products that work for more people. Inclusion in tech leadership is a competitive advantage.

Get in Touch

Let's have a
real conversation.

Available for speaking engagements, advisory conversations, panel discussions and podcast appearances — on digital transformation, AI in the workplace, and women in technology leadership.

Ideal for
HR tech, DEX and future of work conferences
Women in technology and leadership events
Enterprise AI, Copilot and M365 summits
Digital workplace practitioner events
Diversity in tech panels and keynotes
Podcast conversations on career, leadership and AI
Email
ksolima@hotmail.com
Include event name, date and topic for speaking enquiries
 LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/solimakhatun
Connect and follow for content on AI, DEX and leadership
Location
London, United Kingdom
Available in-person and virtually, globally
Response Time
Within 48 hours
All relevant speaking and advisory enquiries answered personally