PORTLAND, Ore., July 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Umpqua Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: UMPQ ), the parent company of Umpqua Bank, has appointed Shawn Ahmed as the new president and chief executive officer of Pivotus , the company’s innovation arm. With years of expertise leading both startup and global enterprise teams, Ahmed will oversee the launch of Pivotus’ enterprise human digital banking platform. In addition, the company has named Troy Molander as chief technology officer, overseeing the development of Pivotus’ technology solutions and team.
“Shawn is an exceptional leader and strategist whose successful track record leading enterprise software companies will further advance Umpqua’s human digital banking strategy, while helping us make it available to other like-minded banks around the U.S.,” said Cort O’Haver, Umpqua president and CEO. “Twenty-five years ago, we recognized that banking is changing, and we took steps to make the process more customer-centric. Today, we are using technology to do the same and empower deeper customer relationships.”
Pivotus is not Ahmed’s and Molander’s first time working together. As founder/CEO and CTO, respectively, at NarrativeWave, they developed a leading-edge analytics platform for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) that found adopters among that industry’s largest players, including GE Digital. Later, as part of an incubation team within Splunk, Inc., they kick-started a business analytics and machine learning practice, leveraging the Splunk platform’s real-time machine data analysis capabilities to deliver powerful data insights for the company’s most innovative clients.
“Umpqua and Pivotus are at the forefront of a new, collaborative approach to banking that will power institutions across the country to better connect and retain customers,” said Ahmed. “I’m excited by the opportunity to collaborate with Troy again to advance Umpqua’s mission of using technology to make banking more personal, consultative, and scalable.”
Before joining forces, Ahmed and Molander led global enterprise technology organizations. As global vice president of SAP’s information management business unit, Ahmed brought data management solutions to market that created value for SAP’s customers around the globe. As co-founder and COO of the highly-publicized Telltale Games, Molander is no stranger to explosive growth. In that leadership role, and later as studio CTO & architect at Zynga, Molander built and delivered thoughtful, impactful, secure, and innovative enterprise software that led to massive technology scale for both companies. At Pivotus, Ahmed and Molander are leading a world-class team of financial services, SaaS computing, artificial intelligence, and retail banking experts.
For more information on Pivotus, please visit www.pivotus.com .
About Umpqua Holdings Corporation
Umpqua Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: UMPQ ) is the parent company of Umpqua Bank, an Oregon-based regional bank recognized for its entrepreneurial approach, innovative customer experience, and distinctive banking solutions. Umpqua Bank has locations across Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho and Nevada. Umpqua Holdings also owns a retail brokerage subsidiary, Umpqua Investments, Inc., which has locations in Umpqua Bank stores and in dedicated offices in Oregon, and Pivotus, an enterprise software and innovation company headquartered in Silicon Valley. Umpqua Holdings Corporation is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. For more information, visit umpquabank.com .
About Pivotus
Pivotus, a full subsidiary of Umpqua Holdings Corporation, was developed by Umpqua Bank as a way to combine the power of the startup model with the direct access to capital, customers and infrastructure that only exists within established financial services institutions. Now an enterprise SaaS (Software as a Service) company, Pivotus continues to imagine and create key technologies and business models that transform finance and commerce, promoting and enabling the “human digital” revolution.
Media Contacts: Kurt Heath Umpqua Bank kurtheath@umpquabank.com
Nora Miller JCUTLER media group nora@jcmg.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/Attachm...ec199dfc7a
