Firas El Bouz

Director AI, Automation, & Enterprise Solutions @ HALA

About

I am a technology leader with 20+ years of experience driving Enterprise Solutions, Automation, and AI Transformation across financial services and Fintech in the Middle East. At HALA, I lead Enterprise Solutions, working closely with the CTO, SRE, IT Governance, SysOps, and business stakeholders to ensure our platforms, Automations, and AI initiatives align with organizational strategy and regulatory expectations. I focus on: 1. Business Analysis – structuring requirements and ensuring enterprise systems meet operational and strategic needs. 2. Automation & Digital Transformation – delivering smart automation for procurement, compliance, reconciliation, and customer support processes. 3. AI Solutions – building a state-of-the-art RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) system and AI agents, powering use cases such as onboarding, sentiment analysis, predictive maintenance, and knowledge management. Key contributions include: 1. Enterprise Systems Leadership: Directed ERP, CRM, and HR platform initiatives, integrating legacy systems with hybrid/cloud environments to enable scalability and agility. 2. Governance & Compliance: Partnered with IT Governance and Risk to establish frameworks aligned with regional compliance standards and industry best practices. 3. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Act as the bridge between IT operations (CTO office, SRE, SysOps) and business leaders, ensuring stability, scalability, and transformation are achieved in tandem. 4. Automation Roadmap Delivery: Deployed automation in contract management, chargeback handling, AML reporting, and claim management — cutting manual workloads and improving speed-to-resolution. 5. AI Roadmap Execution: Rolled out MVP chatbot and sentiment analysis solutions, now scaling to advanced use cases such as automated KYC, fraud detection, and AI-driven reconciliation. I bring a solutions-first mindset, blending operational resilience with forward-looking transformation, enabling enterprises to modernize securely and at scale.

Country

Saudi Arabia

City

Riyadh

Industry

Financial Services

Skill

Digital Project Management, Data-driven Decision Making, Workable Solutions, Infor Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), IT Governance, Enterprise Architecture, Business Architecture, Strategic Planning, Strategic Vision, Team Leadership, Business Value, Agile Methodologies, Requirements Analysis, Business Development, Management, Product Management, Business Analysis, Project Management, Digital Strategy

Experience

Director AI, Automation, & Enterprise Solutions

HALA

2024-3 - Present · 2 yrs 7 mos

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Handling the AI, Automation, Enterprise level solutions and architecture in accordance to the governance framework and strategic vision of HALA

Director of Product Management

HALA

2023-2 - 2025-1 · 2 yrs

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Senior Product Manager

HALA

2021-4 - 2023-1 · 1 yr 10 mos

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Hala is a digital payments platform targeting Consumers & Merchants to create an Ecosystem that will support growth of SME’s via providing them with new digital tools to accept payments, control cash and monitor sales analytics. Hala Company is licensed by Saudi Monetary Arabian Agency (SAMA) in Saudi Arabia & Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) in UAE.

Course Instructor

2013-5 - Present · 13 yrs 5 mos

Online

- Ongoing engagements with multiple platforms to present Online courses related to Fintech and other technology trends -Provided multiple in-house Training for employees

Head of E-Banking

Bankmed

2015-2 - 2021-3 · 6 yrs 2 mos

Beirut District, Lebanon

Maintained communication with different stakeholders to manage the e-Banking business, along with preparing project plans and supervising proper implementation and delivery of solutions. Participated in and managed various projects such as: - Mobile Banking application - Branch Digital Transformation - Interactive Teller Machine (ITM) - Mobile Payments, using Mobile Phones, e-Commerce, & POS channels - Corporate Banking

E-Banking Senior Business Analyst

Bankmed

2012-1 - 2015-1 · 3 yrs 1 mo

Beirut District, Lebanon

Performed assessment of E-Banking services, reported on service utilization levels and researched for applicable and feasible services to enhance the E-banking section services, along with developing business requirements for the E-Banking channel (internet banking, Mobile Banking and ATM services)

Software Engineer

Haceb

2009-12 - 2011-12 · 2 yrs 1 mo

Beirut, Lebanon

IT Administrator

International Press Office

2006-11 - 2009-11 · 3 yrs 1 mo

Beirut Lebanon

Education

The University of Manchester

Finance and Financial Management Services

2021-9 - 2023-11 · 2 yrs 3 mos

Offered by Alliance MBS – one of Europe’s Top Business Schools and Triple Crown institution – the program follows a cutting-edge part-time blended model, with the opportunity of studying in Manchester, Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai. Relevant coursework includes Corporate Finance; Global Financial Markets and Institutions; International Financial Management; Data Analysis & Statistical Techniques, and Business Models & Financial Strategy.

Questrom School of Business, Boston University

2021-6 - 2022-6 · 1 yr 1 mo

This Digital Transformation Leadership MicroMasters program- Offered through EDx.org- helps in developing the knowledge and capabilities to lead organizational change and transformation. The courses provided gives hands-on experience in understanding and articulating: - Leading in the Digital Age - Digital Transformation Strategy - Product Management with Lean, Agile, and System Design Thinking - Business Analytics for Data-Driven Decision Making - Platform Strategy for Business