episode 634

TIAA EVP Ajit Naidu on Buying for Parity and Building for Differentiation

Ajit Naidu is the Executive Vice President and acting Head of Client Services and Technology at TIAA. He's also a board member of TIAA Global Business Services and a Fintech called MyVest. He was, until April of 2021, the Executive Vice President, Chief Technology and Operations Officer of Nuveen, a wholly-owned asset management subsidiary of TIAA, and Head of Global Enterprise Technology for TIAA. He spent roughly four years with the company. Prior to his time with the company, he was the Chief Executive Officer of MDC Business Management Services, a Mubadala company. February 03, 2022

634: In this interview, Ajit discusses the digital journey of the 100-year-old company and the strategic priorities on his roadmap. He begins with an overview of TIAA and his purview as Head of Client Service and Technology. Ajit shares the six pillars as a part of the company’s strategic priorities and expands upon how he is shifting the company towards a data-driven culture and creating a wide ecosystem of partners. He explains how he leverages this ecosystem with Universities to upskill the organization and provide technology and digital training. Finally, Ajit describes how he evaluates where he buys for parity and builds for differentiation, why he shifted towards a product-oriented approach, and what trends in technology are on his radar.

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This episode is sponsored by Transmit Security and Cisco.

             

The World Class IT principles in yellow were the focus of this interview

  • 01 1- People
  • 02 2- Infrastructure
  • 03 3- Project and Portfolio Management
  • 04 4- IT & Business Partnership
  • 05 5- External Partnerships

From strategy to implementation

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