Credit Suisse Backing FinTech Fellowship Program; One Fellow Writing Book on Bitcoin

By Eric Calouro July 8, 2014 08:46

There’s a lot of developments taking place in the Financial Technology sector, and banks and other financial institutions are recognizing this. Many of these institutions are closely monitoring developments in the space, one of which happens to be the growth of digital currency.

One such company happens to be Credit Suisse, who’s backing a FinTech Fellowship program that aims to find entrepreneurs and leaders who will help guide the financial sector into our ever-immersive digital world.

Joined by AlphaCard, Australian insurer Suncorp and UK Trade & Investment, the support is for The Anthemis Fellowship is a 12-month program that is not surprisingly run by the Anthemis Group.

Three fellows will be starting the program in September, where they will spend four months at Anthemis offices in London, UK. They will then be spending four months at one of Anthemis’s portfolio companies, and finally another four months at a major financial company.

One of the fellows is attempting to build out portfolio management models. Another is attempting to create a social fundraising platform. And the third (Justin Drake), perhaps most interesting to us in the community, is an engineering consultant who’s planning to write a detailed book on bitcoin.

“Credit Suisse is passionate about being at the forefront of the transformative change enabled by digital systems and models,” said Credit Suisse managing director Sarah Wilkinson. “The Fellowship initiative from Anthemis is unique in its focus on manufacturing the digital talent that will be so critical to this innovation, and we’re very excited to be part of this initiative.”

“The transition from the industrial age to the information age is driving a secular shift to a world of accelerating change and structural uncertainty,” acknowledged Sean Park, co-founder of Anthemis.

“The Anthemis Fellowship is our modest contribution to creating a new paradigm in professional development, one that we aspire will become a model for finding and developing the future leaders of 21st century finance,” he adds.

We’ll certainly have to keep track of Drake’s journey, and we’ll have more information as developments become available.