We are delighted to announce that Hugh Richards has joined Phi Partners as Chief Innovation Officer, a member of the Executive Leadership Team reporting to Desmond Stockdale, Founder and CEO.

Hugh will lead Phi’s growth, which will come from three sources: innovation growth, account growth and line of business growth. He owns the innovation process from ideation to go-to-market, working with stakeholders across sales, solutioning, marketing, delivery and legal to take value-driving services, technology and AI-enabled managed services to market. He will work closely with Phi’s product development group, a fully AI-enabled team built around UniPhi, our agentic AI enterprise architecture framework.

Our clients are looking for evidence-based productivity gains: where AI can be deployed safely and meaningfully, and where technology can be embedded in processes and services alongside it, both by their partners and within their own functions. Phi is leading the way in the next generation of AI-enabled services, and Hugh’s role is to take that next generation to market.

Hugh brings more than 30 years across banking, capital markets and market infrastructure, spanning vendor-side product management, technology leadership and complex banking programmes. He joins from Product Point Group, where he advises boards and management teams of financial technology companies. Previously he was Managing Director for Products and Solutions at DXC Luxoft, following senior roles at LSEG, NetOTC, QuIC Financial Technology / Markit, ING, Rabobank and ABN AMRO.

Desmond Stockdale said: “Our clients are asking us for evidence that AI delivers efficiencies. Hugh has built and run innovation programmes in service-led financial services businesses before. His role is to turn Phi’s ideas into AI-enabled services our clients can buy, at pace and with discipline.”

About Phi Partners International

Phi Partners International is a specialist capital markets consultancy serving investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers and sovereign wealth funds across seven lines of business. Headquartered in London with hubs in New York, Dubai and Singapore, Phi has a turnover of US$90 million and more than 750 employees globally, with seven delivery centres across Europe and one in India.