In his previous role at Mastercard, he was the Middle East region lead for Mastercard Advisors, Mastercard’s data-driven strategy consulting practice that enables and supports banking, merchant and government partners around the world.

Prior to Mastercard, Khalil was a senior manager with Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company), based out of Dubai where he led key engagements across strategy, M&A, digital banking and wealth management. Prior to Booz & Company, he held a number of positions at Barclays Bank and BNP Paribas.

He holds an MBA with distinction from the University of Chicago (Booth) and is president of the UAE Alumni Club chapter. He also holds an engineering masters from St Joseph University in Beirut, and is an avid reader, angel investor and lover of art, music, travel and haute cuisine.

The young should hold no fear

Reflecting on his career, Khalil wishes he knew no fear when he was 18. “When you’re young, faster execution is better! Going for it faster, failing faster, succeeding faster. I call it TAILOR – Try, Ask, Investigate, Learn, Optimise, Repeat.

For him, the unsung characteristic of the best corporate intrapreneurs is a set of actions: Following focused strategies; learning by speaking and engaging internally; following through with execution and refining strategies over time; shedding what doesn’t work; and keeping what helps them progress their organisations and create value for their customers and shareholders.

A disruptive factor

The most interesting transformative factor for Khalil’s industry, he believes, is identity.

“While it may not sound like a big deal now, if you think about identity technology today, it’s arguably in its infancy. Proper digital identity will redefine the way we discover and identify, how we authenticate, how we transact and interact with each other – or with the machines and ‘things’ of the future (IoT).”

Experience is a mentor

For Khalil, there is no better mentor than “frequency of experiences over time”.

“I believe age is only a proxy for maturity, but becomes much less relevant when you meet people who have ‘accelerated’ their exposure to new experiences, more people and challenging situations.”

J.K. Khalil on… identity management 

“Today, our digital identities are extremely fragmented across platforms, networks and, increasingly, governments. As we get exponentially digitised, a need for better identity management standards will emerge that will allow identification, seamless passporting and ubiquitous transactions between humans, machines and other ‘things’ – and across omni-channels, platforms, corporates and governments.”