Introduction of Citi’s #BacktoWork Program

Deven Somaya is the Product Head for Treasury and Trade Solutions, Singapore, a business unit of Citi’s Institutional Clients Group. Treasury and Trade Solutions offers award-winning integrated cash management and trade services to multinational corporations, financial institutions and public sector organizations across the world, including Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore, Deven is responsible for the development, delivery and growth of the TTS products in Singapore across cash management and trade finance and services. Deven and his team drive the strategy for the TTS products in Singapore, driving the innovation agenda, engaging with regulators as well as collaborating and partnering with the fintech space. 

Deven has held several roles within Citi and prior to his current role, he was the Head of Commercial Cards, Asia Pacific. With circa 20 years of experience in transaction banking and electronic payments, Deven has worked extensively with multinational corporations and government institutions to leverage card technology to modernize and transform the way they manage commercial payments. Deven started his career with Citi in New York as a Management Associate, working in various business and functional areas, including Trade Services, Cash Management Sales and New Product Development. Deven has a Bachelor Degree in Production Engineering from Mumbai University, India and a Masters of Business Administration in Finance and Strategy from Washington University, Olin School of Business, USA. 

Harpreet joined Citi in Jan 2021 to help accelerate the Consumer Bank’s transformation agenda with an ambition to grow our Wealth Management Business, offering and position in APAC and EMEA fit for future, She has wealth of experience, leading and delivering large and complex Business and technology transformation/change programs across Transaction Banking, Core IT services and Financial Crime Risk & compliance.

Harpreet comes with 22 years of experience, 15 of these across Banking IT in multiple leadership roles with Citi, Standard Chartered and Barclays. Highly  focused on Business and Client value propositions, speed to market and effectiveness, she is high on collaboration, agile culture, learning and engagement.

She is a proud mom of 2 kids, high energy, adventure loving, passionate individual and enjoys a number of adventure sports. She is also a racing driver trained on formula 1 track/circuit as she has a huge passion for racing and sports cars. She has an Inspirational leadership style, people’s person, loves working with people as much as with machines.. Working with the teams and helping them create their best versions by driving the energy towards a common vision. 

Shobana has been with Citi for about 16 years, she is a Private Banker, managing wealth for wealthy families. 

She is also a member of the Citi Women Singapore steering committee and co-leads Backtowork with Beatriz. She is passionate about bringing returning female talent back into the workforce and has been working on Backtowork since its start in 2019. 

Punitha Adimulam S is the APAC Head of Operational Client Relationship Mgmt and she also double hat as the Singapore Sales and Trading Middle office Head. She is primarily responsible to drive client strategy and enhance client experience on the post-execution & operational perspective for Markets Platinum clients in APAC region.

She is also leading the Singapore Sales and Trading middle office teams to focus on operational optimization of Middle office processes and controls to achieve efficiency and scalability. Punitha is a seasoned banker with extensive work experience predominantly in Capital Markets ranging from front office to middle and back office space.  

Punitha pays it forward as a Co-Lead for the O &T Singapore Prometheus program to develop AVP female talents and below for career development and she is also a Business Representative for the Singapore O &T to support the #backtowork campaign as she is passionate about championing women talent. These enriched roles have provided her an opportunity to work with diverse talents and build trusted relationships.

Sharon has close to 20 years of work experience having worked in diverse workplaces in Asia as well as Latin America. All through her HR career, she has partnered with many businesses across the enterprise with a heavy focus on organization design, transformation, gender diversity and inclusion, talent development, and change management.

She has actively looked to drive development solutions as well as demonstrated a strong desire to create change through collaboration. As a value creator, she has had success in piloting programs that have become institutionalized over time. She has a proven track record as a strong HR Advisor in her current and prior regional roles.

Progress for women is very close to her heart. At Citi, she has actively engaged and supported the women’s network, provided advisory to development programs as well as ongoing coaching and mentoring. In her last role, she was instrumental in piloting a Career re-entry program for women in finance, first of its kind in the local labor market. Each month she carves out time for empowerment of women - whether it is 1-1 coaching or facilitation or career development.

All through her years of working, she has tried to stay in touch with students – either through campus engagement activities, mentoring initiatives  or through workshops on building your resume and cracking the interview. We’ve all learned something through the pandemic, her lesson has been to respect our body – treat it well with good food, sufficient rest and exercise.