Tech People in the Know: NCR Atleos’ Maha Sivara
In what is a recurring feature, Finopotamus profiles interesting and intriguing tech professionals who are positively impacting the credit union industry.
For this issue, we visited with NCR Atleos’ Chief Data Officer Maha Sivara. With approximately 20,000 employees, the Atlanta-based fintech bills itself as providing an unrivalled ATM experience for financial institutions, retailers and self-service consumers.
By W.B. King
Looking back forty-plus years, Maha Sivara recalled conversations with his father who advised his son to embrace all things tech—he rightly believed tech would have a significant impact on how the world would operate.
“This thought was steadily reinforced as I pursued early and higher education. I was drawn to the intersection of data and business and how that was critical to solving problems and adding value. There was a natural part of me that always believed that technology was most powerful when applied for solving a business problem big or small with implementations based on clear ‘fit for purpose’ and the broader needs of the organization,” Sivara told Finopotamus.
“From my earliest roles as a data analyst in financial services [during the] late nineties, I have always led with the business problem and its deep understanding as that alone enables use of data and technology to create measurable business value,” he added. Prior to becoming NCR Atleos’ Chief Data Officer in 2021, Sivara held several other roles, including a 20-year stint at Capitol One where he last served as its Senior Director of Data Analytics.
“Today as a Chief Data Officer at NCR Atleos, I see data as much more than an IT asset. It is a strategic business asset that can drive growth, improve operations, create new products and enable better decision making,” he continued. “That belief, using technology and data to create tangible value, has been the consistent thread throughout my career.”
Management Philosophy
When Sivara began his career as a systems analyst at Pillsbury, technology departments were mostly measured by their ability to keep systems running, uptime and manage costs. Today, he sees “meaningful change” where expectation is tied to contributing to growth and revenue expansion as well as productivity growth to improve the customer and member experience.
“Management philosophy is much more about cross functional collaboration across the whole spectrum of the value chain whether that’s product development or process management and much more focus on business outcomes being delivered versus technology solution implementation,” he said. “The rise of AI has accelerated this shift as the business leaders now see data as a competitive advantage that proactively impacts bottom line versus just as an after the fact monitoring and insights vehicle.”
The emergence of the Chief Data Officer role, he explained, is a validation that connecting data, analytics and AI to the company’s strategic priorities derives measurable value—a strategic imperative for organizations.
“At the same time, fundamentals remain unchanged—successful organizations still need the right structure, processes, talent that can design and articulate the business problem at the grassroots level followed by strong execution and disciplined governance,” he noted. “Overall, I think data and technology have definitely moved from being the enabler for the business to helping decide what the business can become.”
Building a Culture of Collaboration
Subscribing to a management style centered around building trust and creating an environment where his team feels they can express themselves safely, have fun, feel autonomy, and achieve goals, Sivara always seeks to inspire and remove hurdles.
“I believe in building a culture of collaboration and mutual teamwork that uplifts the whole team and try to demonstrate this on a daily basis,” he shared. “Treat people as people before you discuss career goals and focus on how to make them feel in your interactions before you assign tasks or large projects.”
Among his early champions was Hilary Pawsey who managed him at Capitol One. He credits her for fundamentally changing the way he views leadership roles. “While I already had an environment where talented folks thrived, the art and science of when and how to be clear on the boundaries of your role with customers, focusing on value generation and always thinking target state and driving strategy towards that goal are some of the very effective leadership traits I learnt from Hilary,” he said, noting that two remain in touch, even as respective career directions changed. “Your ability to discuss issues with your leader and learn in that discussion is the top sign of a trusted relationship and I was able to have lots of such discussions with Hilary.”
Better Forecasting
When Finopotamus asked Sivara about tech trends, he said he is encouraged that data strategies are “finally moving beyond historical analysis toward real-time operational intelligence.” Data, he noted, has historically been used to answer questions about what happened in the past, but today institutions are increasingly using data to inform what should happen next.
“As AI advances, the differentiator will be how effectively each institution turns its data into timely alerts, recommendations and actions that support its business objectives and improve member experiences across physical and digital channels,” he continued. “One example is the shift from reactive ATM management to predictive, data-informed operations. Self-service networks generate transaction, device and operational data that can help identify when an ATM may be running low on cash, experiencing unusual activity or approaching a hardware failure. Predictive diagnostics can then direct service resources to the right location at the right time, improving availability and reducing unnecessary costs.
Machine learning, he added, is also strengthening cash forecasting, fraud detection and dispute evaluation. “Better forecasting helps credit unions maintain cash availability without holding or transporting more than necessary. Together, these capabilities are turning the ATM from a standalone transaction device into an intelligent endpoint that continuously informs operational decisions.”
Like-Minded Partners
Noting that credit unions have a distinct advantage over other FIs because of their close relationships to their members and communities, Sivara said they also often better understand members’ financial needs. “At the same time, credit unions sometimes struggle to compete because they often operate with smaller technology teams and fewer resources, requiring them to be especially deliberate about where and how they invest,” he shared.
It is for this reason, among others, that he believes that credit unions benefit from partnering with fintechs that have a meaningful stake in the people helping people movement.
“Credit unions should not have to build every capability independently to remain competitive. The right technology partner can provide scale, specialized expertise and access to capabilities that would be costly and time-consuming for an individual institution to develop and manage,” he told Finopotamus. “However, the partnership must begin with the credit union’s business and member objectives. A like-minded provider should integrate with the institution’s existing environment, be transparent about how data is used, share responsibility for security and governance and measure success through tangible outcomes.”
