Our Company. Built by a team who have done this before.
Our Experience
We’ve led digital transformation inside global banks and fintech platforms. Primitive is built from that experience — to drive AI agent operating leverage in financial services.
Primitives are the building blocks of complex systems — the atomic elements from which everything is assembled.
As a team, we’ve translated internet banking, mobile, cloud, and data into experiences that changed companies, changed regulation, and changed lives. Agentic AI is the fourth wave. We’re building the primitives for it.
Founder & CEO
A visionary leader across digital transformation in Financial Services, having held C-Suite and CEO positions at Barclays, BBVA, US Bank, Google Cloud Financial Services, Galileo and SoFi. Derek is a Utah-based banking executive focused on delivering amazing banking experiences, and now, on bringing the fourth wave of technology, Agentic AI, into regulated enterprises – building the future of operating leverage.
Technology & R&D
Arun is Primitive’s Chief Technology Officer and has been with the company since its founding. With 19 years of experience building enterprise AI inside the world’s most complex regulated institutions — including at Citi, where he led one of the industry’s first Gen AI deployments at scale — Arun translates deep technical expertise into governed AI infrastructure that works in the real world.
Risk & Governance
Tom is Primitive’s Chief Risk Officer, and ensures risk and compliance aren’t constraints at Primitive — they’re the foundation and enablers. With over 20 years of Financial Services and technology consulting experience, Tom brings senior risk leadership most recently from US Bank, where he served as CRO for Digital, Data, AI, Innovation and Open Banking. Tom’s experience is the reason our customers can give examiners the answers they need.
People & Culture
Technology transformation fails without cultural transformation. Paloma led the people and culture programmes that turned BBVA into one of Europe’s most recognised digital banks, and advises for Aberkyn, a McKinsey company. At Primitive, she ensures AI agent deployment changes how people work — not just how systems do.
Product & Execution
The operational transformation expert behind Primitive’s delivery methodology. Ian has spent his career turning technology strategy into execution reality — leading digital transformation at Barclays and BBVA, building new digital businesses, and deploying design thinking and agile methodology inside institutions that don’t move easily. At Primitive, Ian ensures that what we build actually lands.
Design & Experience
One of the UK’s most influential design leaders, with a career from the early days of interaction design to leading design teams at Barclays, Cisco, Samsung and Orange. At Barclays, he built the bank’s first Service Design team. He is the author of Redesigning Thinking (2025). At Primitive, Clive brings the design rigour that turns AI agent deployment into experiences people actually want to use.
Primitive is built by engineers, operators, and product leaders who have deployed systems inside regulated environments. We get:
The Primitive Design Partner Programme is open to a limited number of regulated financial institutions. We’re looking for:
We don’t build technology for banks.
We build it with them.
