Speakers

Ravi Varma is the Global Head of Enterprise Risk Management and Risk Oversight at American Express, leading the company’s enterprise-wide risk strategy, governance, and risk appetite framework. He provides effective challenge to business strategies and processes and regularly presents key insights and risk concerns to the Board of Directors and Senior Management. Ravi oversees Chief Risk Officers across major lines of business and legal entities and drives the development of GRC and Financial Crimes capabilities that strengthen Independent Risk Management. Previously, Ravi served as Chief Operational Risk Officer, overseeing Technology, Cyber, and Data risks. In that role, he enhanced enterprise issue management, strengthened risk protocols, and authored the company’s first comprehensive AI Risk Management policy. Ravi has also led Model Risk Management and Financial Risks—Credit, Market, and Liquidity—advancing AI model standards, shaping regulatory engagement, and guiding liquidity-related risk responses during the 2023 U.S. banking crisis. Since joining American Express in 2003, Ravi has held leadership roles in Decision Sciences and Credit & Fraud Risk, helped build the company’s first Risk Appetite Framework, and developed industry-leading automated monitoring and testing capabilities. He began his career creating foundational fraud and credit models and quantitative decision frameworks. Driven by a passion for analytics and innovation, Ravi champions rigorous, data-informed risk management that anticipates emerging risks, enhances decision-making, and delivers long-term enterprise value.