>> from Bahrain. It's the Q covering AWS Public sector Bahrain brought to you by Amazon Web service is >> over and welcome back to the Cube. Special coverage here in by rain in the Middle East for Amazon Web service is eight of US Summit. I'm John for the Cube our second year, where cloud computing has changed in the landscape. It's changing the entrepreneur equation. It's changing the money equation, and Fintech is very popular. Next guest. Special guests. Ideal worrying. Who's the Deputy Group? CEO Bank, ABC. A legend in the industry. Also the founder. The Fintech Forum Coming up on your fourth big event, But you're keynoting here at Teresa Carlson and A W s Summit car on digital only bank. Welcome to the Cube. Thank you, John. Thank you. Pleasure to speak to you today, so I got a lot to talk about, but digital only bank. This is a really special time in history. Now we're living in a digital error and the digital is driving business change and digital business is on the on the plate of every major executive in the world. How are you enabling digital business, >> John? The way, The way I look at things that two years ago I have went to my board. I said, I wanna disrupt the bank. I want to develop a business digital strategy. And to do that, we have three pictures. We have to run the band first and transform the back. To do that, we have to continue investing on modernizing the bank. Then you evolve the bank investment by creating new product. And finally you just hop the back and how you disrupt the bank. And she's using the digital highway and introducing the cloud computing on bringing a new tools wishes changed the framework and changed the mechanics of the bank. So we created way are not a digital only bank which will be going live in two months time. We launch a wallet on all that sitting on our eco systems it in the cloud the very brave and bold move. But I can tell you, without that you will lose the transformation. Banking today is different than they're gonna be banking of tomorrow. Yeah, we have to start getting into the journey of transformation. >> Bold moves require bold leadership obscenity. You are that this is hard. It sounds easy on paper. You got people to convince. I agree. Changes hard people. Cultural change. How did you do it? What >> was the great question? John are started that in December 2016 I went to my board when the frantic start moving heating our partnership. Look, I want to be on the transformation. Jr and I worked for about 6 to 9 months in greeting our niche with the board unit. Explain to them frantic abroad. Them actually a special fintech speakers guidelines. So I invested heavily. I would always take holder board level people, groups Vo and tell him about the impact of digitization. New cannot afford distant idea. Feel distant. I didn't do nothing. He parked the chain was moved. We'll go without you. So what you're saying is that investment is awareness. You have to explain to him why you cannot treat fintech with the threat. You have to embrace it. >> I love that. I love that leadership. It takes time to nurture and unset the table. Absolutely. And then understand the cloud only strategy. And then you got to sell it and then you gotta implement. These are the new dynamic >> fears fears. John is that most of the stakeholder. They think of cloud as secure and the spending of times They're not security. Instead, he was spending the time questioning spend their time to improve the security with Amazon. We are partners Now we sit with them and doing a demon years. And I tell you, I'm putting all my critical banking system on the ground. >> When you talk to Amazon, you're a bank. Thanks. Have money. Thanks can be act. There were people who worried about all this. Trust is important opportunity. What made you decide to go a W s? >> There's a very first of all. When I decided to individuals with my decision, I looked at you guys, the investment you made it in security, the investment you make or not. Indeed, I looked you committed to the region. I was someone my neighbor you guys have invested that made a bold move to be in Bahrain That did a lot, picked a lot of boxes for me and that was an important move from AWS. And I tell you many regulators today they were going to cloud eventually. So it's very important that anybody is Bridget himself in the >> region. But we love a W s because we covered them. And in depth is part of our media business. And we look at disruptions to and I want to get your thoughts on fintech disruption. We were talking before we came on camera about some key times in history where disruption happened in trade. That is a tale sign for what's happening in that. Tell the story. >> All right, let me tell you the story. In 1953 the first word cargo ship sent from New York to Houston. That chip change the word made history. Why? Because it has the container. So you could supplier trade, sending through the container to different destinations. You know, before how you used to be put them in the trade through It was a nightmare. That disruption have actually improved the globalization of increased trade business. Today all this equipment here comes Chicago comes through container and each container is labelled through computer. So we re vision today Fintech made the same making same disruption in banking on my notions, everything >> and wears a similarity. Scale >> matter, united disruption. This came a volume betrayed should become disrupted. Everybody start using your container. The business the globalization fintech, globalization, skin awareness. So what? The way I see similar to that we had a disruption. Trade become more familiar. Lifestyle has improved. You can now put your house. Your TV is coming From where? From? Your Maybe >> all the cargo containers have changed. Shipping fintech is changing banking, banking >> and lifestyle. You got it. You got a job. >> And so now, well, ironically, two containers or changing the cloud Because containers and kubernetes and frustration, This is about software. That's right. Software money has been a term kicked around. When you hear the word software defined currency software to find money, what do you think of? >> Look, at the end of the day, who writes software people? Human. So basically, the thinking has become from you and I for the people that sit and think about the codes. Yeah, programmer the corner. But there's somebody behind it thinking So you have a thinker on this thing? Got Arjun you the word not the coda. >> Big moves and Finn ticker happening. I want to get your thoughts on leadership in this world where cloud has pretty much instant benefits if you execute properly. Absolutely. There's also architectural thinking. So the word business architecture is not something that they teach in business school or sometimes has to be learned over time to operate a business and go have a growth strategy in changing technological landscapes requires a business. Architecture has to have a ballistic systems thinking this is hard. You've done that for multiple years. What if you learned what were some of the challenges that you came? >> You have to look at when you're running a big enterprise. You have a lot of investment around the world, and a lot of duplication are out of inefficiency at the leader. Money to show my steak stakeholder efficiency. I want our own better shop. Now, if technology can help me to do that, why not? You'll have to jump onto the wagon? Yeah, yeah, I cannot sit idle, and I see a better efficient shop but bank running more efficiently. So I looked with technology addition to disrupt the way I work, but positive disruption. Yeah. The main thing is that the disruption should be a catalyst for a positive change. So what I learned I learned efficiency would the digital disruption with the cloud today and instead of putting 25,000 servants to serve my 18 countries. I put in the cloud. You done it. You know the economy is Ken Jordan and the shaving >> the flywheels. Amazing. The operational efficiency are amazing. As an executive, you managed to results at the end of the day. Business is business. Results matter. How are your results? You gotta make money >> at the bank. It I have a good show. Uh, results. >> Got to make some money. How do you see that? Evolving digital only business. What's your strategy? What's your roadmap? For? How you see the money making kicking >> in, John, that our clients becoming sophisticated. My corporate client today if I don't deliver in a digital solution through his statement, give the payment, Foster. He's gonna go for a fintech company because today, front companies are competing with me eating my lunch. So I have to prove, if my client becoming digital Chevy more sophisticated, I cannot sit and watch. So I have to invest heavily. You make sure my client is satisfied giving the right cash management to transaction banking. All this the book payments or this have to be alternated. So I have to be continue looking after my client. That's where the money >> are you happy where you are, Where you're at right now? Are you happy with work? >> There's always room for improvement. I will continue. Invest on Are we innovate because you cannot stop. I mean, look, I'm a zone today. Would they stop? >> No, no, they're not stopping >> way. We need to continue. >> What's your areas that you think about for the next five years? Fintech. What are an important area? >> You know what? I think Joe's gonna affect our lifestyle. A I artificial intel. I feel way only seen the beginning. We have seen nothing out of the way. A bank, ABC. We just lost our first digital employees. Uh, her name is Fatima, and we will be coming live in November. I tell you, this is the beginning. I feel artificial intelligence is gonna affect our work force in the world. >> Tell me more about this digital employees concept. >> Well, that until passionate about what we worked with a company called So machine in you Zeeland on there are the same people who actually invented you've seen the movie of it all. Yeah. So the same people actually design movie and avatar work. We work with them to create a footman. Fatma is already being trained. Do help a new Crying Toe Bank, ABC. The Tissue Bank Open account. Two shoes. A correct credit cards for you Help you and also to be able to have a chat with her to be able to ask you a question. Jerry. A question about the Bahrain about the population but banking. It's a journey on. The journey's so far being successful, and I continue. If you ask me the question in a year's time, I would tell you probably thought it would be somebody else. >> This is helping augment the experience for your customers. That's the goal, >> absolutely. And from experience with my consumer. >> Okay, I want to change the subject and talk about the fact you're the founder of the Fintech Forum. You've had your third edition for the coming up. Talk about the event. What's the purpose? >> Uh, in in about 2016 December, I went to them sentimental by rain Governor and I said, We want to sponsor a frantic conference so self like impressed that immediately and British idea. And then I went back to my board my good CEO, I said, We want to sponsor the fish interconference on my papers at the time, the warning Because at that time in nearly 2017 we hear different around the region. Nobody actually sat there and say, Was the interactive printed on banking? You see, other victim. So I launched the first winter conference Was its success 2nd 1 also a sex. And the 3rd 1 was a kook because we put the top speaker on the world. And now people are judging me for the 4th 1 event business Now. No way about Responsive Bank. NBC's was the sole sponsor. >> That's exciting. And I think these events are changing, too. The fact that you're getting into events, you're contributing your knowledge, your also sponsoring providing some working capital >> contribution as a bank. International bank. At least I can do to support my reign infrastructure in the vision in a fintech. Sorry, >> no problem. Think out of the water. I want to say I want to get your thoughts on something. I feels important. I said this last year and the year before, when Amazon launches a new region, yeah, it creates a revitalisation. It has computing power has all those things. It's a center point of innovation. How do you see that same thing? And what's, um, things that people might not know about the Amazon relationship to the area? Because all this innovation and enablement fintech societal change the government ministries are coming online here by rain. Entrepreneurs are creating value. They're getting funded this liquidity banks, air going fintech A modernization wave is happening with a new generation of young people and existing businesses. This is a digital complete modernisation. Your thoughts on on all this digital transformation Societal at a societal level with Amazon >> Amazon already contributed to the digital economy was in it in the world. And I've seen already the impact this part of the world. The fact that this conference is summer today I can't answer your question. Look at the contribution. You have about 2000 people here look the excitement of what to bring into the region. I have seen people today from Chaudhary from Kuwait, from Morocco, from Amman, from Egypt here. So you are actually building the knowledge excitement and you also have been people to understand the ecosystem and what was missing. So what you doing any bill Us now actually investing heavily on educating awareness of the digital destruction and digital economy. You are participating in the digital economy. I mean, also today I heard from Malaysia. Very good. Exactly. Sponsoring a program a degree with University of Bahrain doesn't pass just free. So this is basically you Continue doing that. And you find AWS is already effective. Life like the clock is gonna be so I think it's body is already contributing the digital economy worldwide. >> You know, I'm fascinated. I'd love to have more conversations with you on this, Maybe at your forum. But one thing I want to get your thoughts on is with digital collaboration is not just face to face. You meet people here from different countries, but then we go back to our place is but we're still together digitally. So the scale of cloud computing and digital is impacting not just money collaboration. What's your vision on how collaboration and the role of people are going to play in this new dynamic? John, >> if you have asked me three years ago our video I was a threat with winter company with your banker. They're gonna eat my lunch. But today you realize with time the only way you can move on trust through collaborating with the company. That's why today I'm sitting with AWS sitting with other victim basically breaking people. I know my banks, but I don't know how to build a clock ticking. So I caught a break. I don't know how to move on a new Sophia or so I go with. I want to use it to get that. You see what I mean? >> Yeah, I think you have another good point that we reported on many times. And that is that when you collaborate with these technologies, it makes the domain expertise and the data that you >> have >> more intellectual, more emotional property because, you know, banking intimately. You have data, you have customers. That's your intellectual property. You could use that faster with the resource. This is a new competitive advantage >> with analytics would get the science. The data is the new order, if you should, but you need the tours. You need another unique data scientist. And when you have the distant scientist dental become than yours. >> So he'll thank you for sharing your awesome insights here and let you hear about rain. Really appreciated. Congratulations. Tino speaking. Bank, ABC. Thank you. Going all digital. Bold moves. Bold leadership. Thank you. Thank you very much. We're here in the Cube. We're live broadcasting here and by rain. 80. This summit. I'm John Ferrier. Thanks for watching.

>> From Bahrain, it's theCUBE. Covering AWS Public Sector Bahrain. Brought to you by Amazon Web Services. >> Welcome back, everyone, to CUBE coverage here in Bahrain for AWS Summit. Cloud computing's changing the landscape, startups, business, government, and society. We're here with a special guest, His Excellency, Aymen Tawfiq Almoayed. Thank you very much, thanks for coming, thanks for joining us. >> Thank you for having me. >> And of course Max Peterson, Vice President of International Sales, Worldwide Public Sector for Amazon Web Services. >> Good to be here, John. >> Your Excellency, this program you're doing with Amazon, this MOU you've signed is interesting, I want to unpack it, because it speaks to the bigger picture of how the region is shaped by its generational shift of cloud computing and the people here. This is a really big part of this modernization plan. >> No question, no question. So the program that the government adopted, so Vision 2030, which was adopted a while ago, is based on one premise, one key premise. That the government is going to move from operator to regulator, and our focus would be to focus on and establish, create almost, an open, just, competitive environment. So the idea is for us to provide the platform and then allow the meritocratic system to let those that can aspire to opportunities and reach these opportunities come up through the system. So this program really sets the stage to get a new level going. >> Explain the difference with this program and why it's different than some of the things we've been hearing. We saw a cloud computing degree coming out of the University of Bahrain. We're seeing a lot of job skill training. This is different, this is a unique thing. Can you give a more detail around how it works. >> So, what we're doing is we're looking at very quick wins. And for us, six months, for somebody to spend six months, one year, in Amazon is a very quick win. This is not an extended degree. What this is is it's an opportunity to interact with the best of the best in their world sector. And to, honestly it's almost like a reset, where what Max and I were talking about earlier is somebody that spends a year with Amazon, I think that something happens to the pulse rate, right. So your pulse literally starts to beat much faster. >> Max knows all about that. >> Exactly, exactly. We hear about their traveling patterns, and that in itself is amazing. So in any case, so the reason it's different from a degree is it gives you real-life vocational experience. It gives you the networking opportunity. It gives you the lifestyle exposure. And then it gives you the shortcuts in organization. >> So you're exposing them to the excellence of what a culture looks like, Amazon in this case. They're hard-charging, they're fast. Anyone who's worked with Amazon knows that they move pretty quickly. But they're disciplined. It's a world-class organization. It's like a sports team being promoted to varsity or the pro team. Work their way up from the entry-level. >> So maybe the difference as well is, in this sort of program it's sink or swim. It's really as simple as that. I mean, you need to hit the ground running and take off. Maybe with a degree, it's much less so. With a degree, you go through your first year, your second year, your sophomore and so on. So what we do, what we want, is we want our youth to hit the ground running. We want very quick wins and I have no doubt that once the first trench, first team goes out to Amazon, comes back, I'm sure that the ripple effect that you see in industry and you see in the marketplace will be tremendous. >> Max, what's your take on this? 'Cause obviously you're on the Amazon side. You're taking them in Amazon Web Services here in Bahrain, or is it outside corporate headquarters in Seattle? Is there a definition around? >> All good questions. First, we're excited to be the first company that is partnered with the Ministry on this effort. We're sure many others are going to join, but we're excited to be first. I think what makes it different is the aspect of experiential. There's a lot of experiential learning that's going on different than the academic learning. Equally or maybe even more necessary is the sort of organizational cultural learning. Just what does it take to operate at world scale or at pace. And then to be able to bring that back to the region. We'll do that wherever we've got the right mix of skills. So it could be in Bahrain, where we've got a big office now, it could be in London, could be Washington, D.C., could be Seattle. >> Your Excellency, we always talk about on theCUBE over the years, tech athletes. Because, you know, to be an athlete, you got to have durability, intelligence, stability. Being a tech athlete, the travel schedules, we were just joking last night about it, you mentioned it. But also the intelligence and the integrity to do this at this speed. So this is kind of, I love the theme, so I want you to elaborate why this connects in with your vision and how did this idea get started, what was the origination around this effort? >> So initially the, again, if one takes a step back, we started experimenting about a year ago, a year and a half ago with the sports sector. So what we were doing with the sports sector, because it was a much smaller sector. What we're trying to experiment there is, if you were to allow our athletes to interact with the best in class, what would happen? Would they live up to that experience or not? And so one of the segments that we were looking at is, for example, triathlons. So about two years ago, this sport, triathlons in general, just simply didn't exist in the region. So two, maximum three years ago, they just, they were nonexistent. So His Highness had ordered that we go ahead and see if we can develop this and see if we can develop the athletes for it. And so what we needed to do, essentially, was pick some-- >> Find the athletes. (laughs) >> Is find the athletes, exactly. Send them out, we did a few triathlons. They did Kuna and Florida, came back, loved it, the addiction and the adrenaline kicked in, and then we started arranging duathlons and then triathletes here in Bahrain. Of course, I don't know if you know this, a year, fast forward, a year and a half later, and BE13, which is our triathlon team, is number one in the world. Simply it's number one in the world. Now we're doing this, we tried this with biking. So we sent a team to the Tour de France, and we started to do exactly the same thing. We were aspiring to look at greats like Sky team and the rest, and just learning from them, imitate, and then innovate, and-- >> One, if you have to have the talent to begin with, your theory is put 'em in, let 'em see it, and they'll either level up or they won't. It's self selection. >> Absolutely, no question. >> And you want to bring that formula to tech. >> It's pure meritocratic sink or swim. So we've got, so there's two, there's two phrases that we live by, all right. Number one, our role is open, competitive, just environment. That's it, all right. The number two is we open doors with no hand-holding. Simply no hand-holding, but we'll get you the opportunity. But if Amazon calls us and says participant number 606 or whatever isn't up to the cut, then they're not up to the cut. And what our youth have proven to us time after time is they're always up to the cut. As long as you make that clear, they-- >> The expectation defines the experience. So if you say this is what it is, you can swim or you can sink, your choice, people will tap out, they won't even jump in. >> I like the tech athletes piece. >> Yeah, I'm loving it, absolutely. >> Well, I mean, a lot of tech athletes, it takes a lot of energy, it is like you said, you don't know what it takes to build a company, it's really hard, I mean, it's not easy. >> It is, and the thing, just like this program, the thing that was interesting about the University of Bahrain idea was they're going to try and immerse everybody, because cloud and technology now is immersed in any field. I mean, anything becomes digital. And we were talkin' earlier about e-sports, so you need a whole bunch of great tech athletes to start bringing e-sports services to the world. >> Absolutely. >> Do you see e-sports emerging? >> Yeah, no doubt. So what we did on Friday is we signed the first agreement, this is the first time that a region hosts, we're hosting BLASTPro's finals in Bahrain, this is going to be on the 13th and the 14th of December, and that's running, streaming on Twitch. So we're excited, we're excited to be doing this with the guys at BLASTPro, and we're excited to be using Amazon's infrastructure to do it. So yes, absolutely, there is amazing things to be seen in e-sports and we're excited. >> This is awesome, digital disruption, you guys have been so proactive on this. I was commenting this morning on Twitter, then stats went out about entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley in the U.S., 51% of all ventures fail. And some other ones, 4% become unicorns, but it was all about optionality, et cetera, et cetera, and entrepreneurs are about getting on the right wave and falling and trying again, and this is, you guys have been very proactive on this. >> Right, so that's exactly why we think that sports plays a big role. So the idea behind the program was simply to gamify everything. The idea behind this program, the idea behind adopting the new bankruptcy law in Bahrain, and the new reform regulations that are coming in, all we're doing is we're gamifying things. What we're simply saying is when you fall, it's OK to fall. As long as you get back up and hit the ground running once again, we're OK with that. So you'll start to hear phrases that are pretty interesting. Like I said, with the entrepreneurships, what we're looking at is unlocking levels. So we're gamifying. With education we're doing exactly the same thing, we're looking at vocational training where you get to unlock levels. So as long as people know that the name of the game is just to stay in the game, and then outpace everybody else, then we're good. >> And the funding's been fantastic. You guys have been supporting it with resources. Now that the region's up and running, Max, do you feel good about the development so far with the new region? Therese was just on earlier, she mentioned first day they turned it on, a bunch of companies were launched already. >> Besides the cannons and the confetti that shot out today at the summit, the other exciting thing's I think when we launched the region, we had over 350 different companies, many small businesses, small and medium enterprises that put their offerings into the AWS Marketplace. When it was launched, anybody in the region, anybody in Bahrain, could literally turn on 1,700 different types of software solutions at the push of a button, so I think that's big. I think we heard how 35 local companies have created migration offerings and fast-start offerings. We heard from one great entrepreneur on stage today and we heard from government about how government's operating faster than business, I think Sheikh Salman threw down a bit of a challenge to the rest of the government and state enterprises and even corporations. And then of course I think we saw the digital bank of the future from Bank ABC with their first virtual banking assistant up on stage who, by the way, lives in the cloud over Bahrain. >> Yeah, digital employee, we had a great chat about that. This speaks to the generational shift, this is something that's going to be an interesting footnote in history. The sea change around expectations, you brought this up earlier, I think this is important. The younger generation, they want the world to be at a different speed, and they don't want an intolerant blockers in their way. And so whoever can be out front on setting up the environment, whether it's society, government, citizen services, but money-making potential, banks got to operate. So this is the replatforming of society is happening. >> No question, yeah, no question. I'll give you just the, when you compare ministries, when you compare government entities, you would walk in and you'd assume the ultra-bureaucratic system is still in place where you've got to go through tiers and so on and so forth. As far as the youth at the Ministry of Youth is involved, these guys are running things with chats, we've got internal chat systems, and so there is no memo-writing process where you then have to escalate it, and then it goes to the minister's office and so on. Absolutely not. These guys are on the likes of Slack, the likes of Teams from Microsoft and so on, and that's how government is run. >> Max, email's for old people like us. >> Hey, modern digital governments are redesigning the way all this stuff works, and it doesn't, the thing that's interesting to me is it doesn't just impact these things that you would think of as tech. I thought the example of going from 130 days to 5 days for permitting approvals-- >> For building permits, sure. >> That takes out a massive amount of inefficiency from the industry, right, and it enables that very industry to then move faster, instead of government as a blocker to so many of these things, becomes an enabler. And I think it's that attitude about modernized, customer-focused or citizen-focused that is the hallmark of what folks are doing now to make a difference. >> Well, thanks for coming in and sharing the insights. Your Excellency, great to see you. I have one final question, take a minute to explain to the folks what is the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affair, what's the charter, you going to add tech athletes to the mix now that we've kind of defined that term? But take a minute to explain-- >> Tech athletes. So the vast majority of the population is under the age of 35. The ministry's mandate is to make sure that anybody within that constituency, their touchpoints are being managed in the right way. So our job, very, very simply, is to be effectively the change agent for them, number one, and number two, to protect their interests. So we're the ones that are negotiating regulations that come in, but what touchpoint really is relevant? We're negotiating new laws that impact youth when it comes to their trades, new laws that impact youth when it comes to their rights, new laws-- >> Whether it's culture or art or whatever. >> Any touchpoints, so effectively we're customer-relations for youth, or client relations for youth. So that's that from one perspective. With regards to sports, we're simply regulators. So what we're doing is we're moving from an operator model to a regulator model, and what we're trying to do is we're trying to create a sports industry. So instead of us focusing on the actual tournament itself only, we're looking at sports diplomacy, we're looking at sports industry, we're looking at human performance and things like that. So any sectors that we can catalyze to grow in Bahrain that relates in any way, shape, or form to sports, whether it was medicinal development, technological development, regulations or otherwise, that falls under Ministry of Youth and Sports. >> You're charged to look at the whole individual across all spectrums touchpoints. >> Exactly >> That's awesome. >> So we're a horizontal as opposed to a vertical. >> Your Excellency, great to have you on theCUBE, great topic, could talk about it forever. We love sports, of course, on theCUBE, we love talkin' sports, Max, you're a tech athlete. >> I'm a tech athlete, I learned that today. Brilliant. >> You go from city to city, hit a home run everywhere you go. >> I'm looking for the next league to compete in. >> Guys, thanks so much for the insights. CUBE coverage here at AWS Summit in Bahrain, I'm John Furrier, thanks for watching. (bright music)