Both sides of the table.

I am Ashok Menon, founder of HeartRoot Advisory. Thirty-seven years in global digital transformation across banking and financial services, working across end clients, startup leadership teams, top-tier global system integrators, SMEs and technology specialists. That range matters: I have built practices inside large SI organisations and advised founders running very small ones.

Since 2018 I have worked independently, providing consulting, strategy and execution oversight to SMEs and fintechs in the BFS domain. Since 2024 my focus has been strategic initiatives into the US mid-market banking segment, leading partnerships, presales and marketing practices. That is the corridor HeartRoot works today: primarily Asia-Pacific into the United States, and selectively the other way.

Across both large SI organisations and small founder led firms, my work was hands on: solutioning and delivering onsite at the client, in their market. Opening Germany and Japan, and building the partnership channels in the US and Australia, meant being in those rooms rather than managing them remotely.

Alongside HeartRoot I run ERMG Consulting, an enterprise risk advisory practice working with banks and financial institutions. That matters here. The risk function is where your deal is actually decided, and I spend a good part of my working life inside it.