In this episode of The Connector Podcast, host Koen van der Hooijdonk interviews Roger Portnoy, Chief Strategy Officer at Objectway. The conversation begins with an overview of Portnoy’s responsibilities—product strategy, corporate development, M&A, and emerging‑technology R&D. They then discuss Objectway’s flagship "Owen" event, a biennial conference that aligns its location with a thematic focus. The 2024 edition was held in Venice, chosen to underscore sustainability because the city embodies centuries‑old innovation and resilience. Portnoy explains how the event highlighted the massive capital shift toward environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and showcased client stories of business modernization, which he describes using a "Diamond" framework that illustrates how diverse firms (universal banks, wealth managers, private banks) converge on similar innovation pathways. The hosts note that the event’s success was also due to strong logistics, marketing, and audience engagement. Finally, Portnoy outlines how prospects can become involved in future Owen events—through Objectway’s digital channels, the Wealth Mosaic platform, and direct outreach—emphasising that the conference is not only for existing clients but also for selected prospects interested in sustainable, experience‑led transformation. The episode closes with thanks and a call to stay tuned for more industry innovation insights.
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Welcome to the Connector Podcast, an ongoing conversation connecting fintechs, banks, and regulators worldwide. Join CEO and founder Koen van der Hooijdonk as you learn more about the latest available trends and solutions in the markets. This episode is proudly sponsored by ON23, organized by Objectway.
Welcome everyone and welcome to a new podcast. And today I'm no longer streaming from Venice, but I'm doing it online with Roger. But Roger is also working at Objectway. Roger, what do you do at Objectway?
So hi, Koen, and to your audience, welcome as well. Uh, I am the Chief Strategy Officer at Objectway. Uh, in my job, I am responsible for product strategy, corporate development, M&A activity, and overall emerging technologies research and development.
That's a mouthful.
Indeed. Many responsibilities and lots of accountability.
Excellent, excellent. Now, I had the pleasure and joy to, to be present at Owen. Yeah, what is it all about?
So the, the Owen concept was created by Luigi, the CEO of ObjectWay, because he wanted a, um, a mechanism by which he could interact with the clients, but at the same time interact in a way which sort of helped clients see a theme that Object Way was trying to bring to market.
Mm-hmm.
So the events actually historically haven't been held every year, but every other year. Um, and in each event, it's always been about trying to marry the kind of origin, the place where you're having the event, with the theme of the event and with things that Object Way is now doing in relation to the event. So we, of course, paused during the pandemic, as many did, to have such live events with people in the same room. But we were able this time round to obviously reinvigorate the concept and to hold it in the wonderful city of Venice.
Yeah, that was actually my next question because the scenery was marvellous. But what was then the link with Venice?
So the link with Venice was, was something that was conceived of when we began to think about the sustainability theme in the industry. As you are aware, if you're in wealth management or even broader asset management, the last 7 years or so, um, has seen a huge increase in interest and capital flows to sustainability themes, whether those are environmental themes, social themes, governance themes, etc. The flow of capital has been in the many trillions now to try to help our planet and help our society more broadly. Venice is a city that is steeped in the tradition of sustainability. Uh, you know, as if you're at the event, you had the pleasure of listening to the speaker who is head of the NITSEO. And what you learned from listening to his speech was that this city has survived and thrived through effectively innovation. And so it seemed like the ideal place to both talk about sustainability and also to introduce the concepts of innovation, which was sort of the core theme of our conference.
I still remember the quote of the day, actually for me, the quote of the year almost, A tradition is a successful innovation from the past. Oh, goosebumps, right?
Yeah, yeah, indeed.
So are you saying that the only theme was around sustainability or was it also a broader theme? And Roger, what was your highlight of the event? If you had the personal top 3, what would that be? Or even the top 1? Okay, the pinnacle.
Uh, yeah, I think, I think the overall highlight, besides the fact that the conference went well, you know, and, and, and obviously the feedback we've gotten about the event itself and about the organization of the event and how well the marketing team handled the event and the logistics of the hotel, all those could be seen as highlights.
I can only fully agree.
That's good, glad to hear. I would say for me, the highlight was the fact that clients shared with the audience their own ways of modernizing their own businesses. And, you know, and that— and how closely this modernization, whether you were a large universal bank, a small wealth manager, a private bank, sort of reflected the Diamond, right? So we didn't, we didn't tell people that at the beginning, you know, when we were speaking to firms, we asked them about what innovations they would talk of, talk to, and we gave them sort of general ideas of the topics. But when they actually got on stage and they delivered, you know, what you could hear in this modernization program, regardless of who was speaking about it and what the overall program was, you heard the diamond. And for me, People coming in didn't know it was the diamond, but leaving, they kind of got it.
They understood the concept of radiate.
They did.
And that, and that's like a big deal, because when you're trying to reinvent or invigorate your brand, which we're always trying to do, of course, you need, you need some things which aren't always about technology and functionality and value chain and these other things to be present, or else your brand can come kind of become dull. So, so this was a way that we, uh, we achieved that. And to me, that was the highlight, because going in, I didn't really know, even though I was the host and obviously leading many of the introductions, that this would be the outcome.
Oh, but that's beautiful. So now all the audience is very curious How can they be part of the next Owen? And I think that's very simple. It's to become an Objectway customer. So we're almost getting towards the end of this podcast. So maybe one last question, Rogers. What would be a step to approach you guys?
Yeah, well, actually, just let me correct you one on one thing you said, Koen, because it's important to say that these events aren't just for clients. We did, we did actually have at the event a number of prospects Um, and, and we did, of course, select the prospects. Um, so they weren't— they didn't sort of come to the website and say they wanted to come and we suddenly said sure, you know, given we're funding the whole, whole conference. But, but obviously, you know, we have, of course, like every firm does, web presence.
Mm-hmm.
The other thing, of course, we have as a, as a firm is we've developed different channels to sort of demonstrate web presence. So For example, you might have noticed at the event there was a guy named Stephen Wall presenting, and he's from Wealth Mosaic.
Mm-hmm.
Wealth Mosaic is a, is a resource that people can go and find organizations like ourselves and discover things about ourselves, you know, and therefore make themselves known to Objectway. So, so of course, besides the normal digital channels and the normal search, et cetera, There are sort of these distinct ways. And like I said, you know, given we cover private banks, asset managers, universal banks, asset servicing firms, private clients, stockbrokers, all who are customers, and all of whom were at the event, you know, if you're in one of those spheres, right, we're probably relevant for you. And if you're doing a sustainable innovation program, customer experience-led, target operating model-led, business reconfiguration-led or offering design change-led, you know, we're probably going to be somebody you're going to want to speak to.
Oh, but that's great, Roger. It was a real pleasure having you today. I'd like to thank you a lot for your participation. Thank you also to the audience for tuning in, and please stay listening to the podcast because we will share you more information about innovation in our industry. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much for having me.
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