Senior Associate

Clark Fisher

Clark has been delivering strategic transformation programme management services for clients in the UAE for the past three years. He has been working closely with stakeholders to drive programme delivery, manage risks and issues, and ensure programme benefits are achieved.

Clark has extensive experience delivering strategic projects over the past 10 years in the Middle East.

Previously, Clark worked with PwC and KPMG in Bahrain and Dubai, covering financial services across the GCC. His previous clients include central, commercial and retail banks, and has worked on various strategy and change management projects. He has supported and delivered over $50 million US in projects, such as launching a brand redesign, overseeing the PMO for digital transformation, and governance set up for a cross-border FI.

Partner

Chris Renardson

Chris has over 30 years’ experience in banking operations and has worked for a number of global institutions across Europe, the UK and US including Credit Suisse, NM Rothschild, JP Morgan and more recently, ABN Amro where he was Global Head for Securities Operations.  Prior to joining Aspiro, Chris led a Capital Markets Operations practice for KPMG.  He has led major transformation programmes focused on simplification, regulatory conformance and new ways of working and has extensive experience of process optimisation, operating model design, regulatory compliance, and new Ways of Working.

Partner

Ben Almond

An experienced Global Real Estate Executive with a background in Finance, Operations and Banking.

Ben is the former Global Head of Property at Pearson PLC, the world’s learning company, where he provided strategic and operational leadership of a complex, global portfolio and managed a large, geographically dispersed team across 6 continents. Ben orchestrated and led Pearson’s global location strategy and transformation programme for 5 years, implementing new innovative workplaces to support the company’s digital and growth agenda, and delivering over £300m of financial benefits.

He spent 15 years in the earlier part of his career working in Finance, Capital Markets and Derivatives COO roles for leading Investment Banks.

Ben has a track record of advising global, listed corporate institutions on real estate transformation strategies, governance, organisational design and delivering complex change programmes across multiple geographies.

He is adept at assessing risks, identifying financial and operational improvement opportunities, designing and leading location strategies and delivering business-enhancing change.

He is an effective communicator and confident presenting at all levels of organisations.

Ben is an accomplished leader with a passion for simplifying complexity, developing talent and delivering excellence.

Principal

Gaurav Diwan

Gaurav has 28+ years of experience in the Banking industry focused in the areas of Digital Transformation and strategy

Gaurav has worked with leading global organizations like Barclays Bank PLC, Oracle & ADCB and lead Digital transformation programs across Asian and African nations. Gaurav has been instrumental in bringing paradigm shift in organisations with large technological debt through an agile delivery supported by cutting edge technology and trends including Cloud strategy, AI / ML capabilities amongst others

Gaurav has run technology operations across the Banking space including Retail Banking, Corporate banking, Risk, Compliance, Payments Credit, Finance etc. He has consulted and transformed organisations with archaic technology landscapes, built customer journeys to create technology savvy organization keeping customer at the center.

Gaurav has also established COE for Cloud strategy, Payments, Digital customer journey through Agile, Waterfall and hybrid implementation methodologies. He has built and implemented the Demand Management framework to support annual and ad hoc planning of initiatives enterprise wide.

Principal

Sanduni Fernando

Sanduni is an accomplished senior banking professional with over 18 years of global experience in program management, strategy execution, mergers and acquisitions, and operational transformation. She has worked with leading organizations such as HSBC Middle East and Saudi British Bank, focusing on ESG advisory, regulatory engagement, financial restructuring, and business optimization.

As the former Data Officer for HSBC Middle East and a key member of the HSBC Global M&A Strategic Special Projects Team, Sanduni successfully completed seven MENAT strategic transactions, contributing 50% (over $5–20 billion) to HSBC Holdings’ profit before tax year-on-year. She also spearheaded HSBC’s second global affluent retail customer proposition, “Advance,” in 2010 and rolled out the Global Intra-business Cross Referral Program between Retail and Private Banking in 2012, generating over $1 million in revenue.

Sanduni has lived and worked across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Australia, where she has delivered impactful strategic initiatives, including ESG framework implementation, large-scale transactions, and corporate governance enhancements. Her expertise includes business advisory, program execution, stakeholder management, and ensuring compliance with international regulatory standards.

Currently, Sanduni is a Principal at Aspiro Management Consultants, where she leads the national ESG strategy implementation for Saudi Arabia, working closely with 11 Saudi banks and the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA).

She holds an MBA with honors in International Business from Torrens University, Melbourne, Australia.