Editors’ Note

As an experienced senior advisor for C-suites and Boards, David Maya is effective in driving progress and achieving impact through a combination of bespoke problem-solving, deep institutional understanding, and a pragmatic approach to shaping recommendations. He brings extensive experience in wholesale banking, including corporate banking, capital markets, securities services, and transaction banking and has acquired deep expertise in strategic financial resource management, liquidity management, capital planning and management, stress testing, resolution planning, risk governance, and operating model and organizational effectiveness. As someone who enjoys problem-solving, client service, coaching, and speaking at events, Maya has also authored a number of articles on bank management post crisis, most recently published by The American Banker. Maya served on the Board of Literacy Partners which takes a two-generation approach to education to break the cycle of poverty, improve job prospects, and close the achievement gap for children before they even begin school. He also served on and chaired the Board of Trustees of the International Charter School in New York City and has done an extensive amount of pro-bono work with leading nonprofits in New York City. Maya earned a BA degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MSc in economics from the University of Oxford.

Company Brief

Accenture (accenture.com) is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth, and enhance services – creating tangible value at speed and scale. The company is a talent- and innovation-led company with 801,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and Accenture is one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change with strong ecosystem relationships. The company combines its strength in technology and leadership in cloud, data and AI with industry experience, functional expertise, and global delivery capability. Accenture’s broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy and Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song, together with a culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enables the company to help its clients reinvent and build trusted, lasting relationships.

Will you discuss your career journey?

I was born and raised outside the U.S. and came to this country as a young man to study and live. I went to college here, went to post-graduate school in the U.K. and worked and lived in different countries – Venezuela, Argentina, Turkey – always with the U.S. as my home base. I have a deeply held love and admiration for this country and its people – it’s a special place and a real home for me. My wife and I married and raised our family here in New York City; we’ve been here for nearly 40 years. We love the sense of dynamism and the imperfect but ineffable beauty here. I call it the center of the universe.

What excited you about the opportunity to join Accenture and made you feel it was the right fit?

I joined Accenture less than a year ago to lead the company’s Finance Risk Compliance practice. Prior to coming here, I was at Oliver Wyman, where I spent over a decade serving banks and insurance clients on risk. Before that, I was in industry, at JP Morgan and Citi, for a combined eight years; this experience made me a much better advisor. I began my career at McKinsey, where I spent seven years serving financial services clients.

I decided to join Accenture because of the incredible promise of our company’s breadth and scale of capabilities which no other organization can even come close to and which, more importantly, our large clients need to solve their most challenging issues and achieve their strategic objectives. The power of combining strategic consulting with deep capabilities in technology, data, and AI is something that sets us apart.

How do you describe Accenture’s culture and values?

This is a great question because it gives me an opportunity to tell you the second, but perhaps more critical, reason I felt compelled to make the leap to Accenture. And that is the caliber of the senior leadership, the level of authenticity, the duty of care Accenture exudes with respect to the 801,000 people who make up the company. I gained deep appreciation of this during my discussions before I joined; even more so during my first several months here. A pleasant surprise for me was how quickly I felt part of the fabric of the company. For that, I credit a strong ethos of embracing new thinking, new people, and new ideas. I need to add one more thing, which is such a deeply embedded feature I observed – that is the omnipresence of clients and client orientation in the way senior leaders are expected to think, act, and spend their time.

What have been the keys to Accenture’s industry leadership, and how do you define the Accenture difference?

I go back to what I said earlier which is the breadth and depth of the expertise we bring across so many domains and industries, combined with unparalleled scale at which these are deployed. I learn things about what Accenture does nearly every week that blow me away, notably the ten-digit value we create through transformation partnerships we build with our clients.

Will you provide an overview of Accenture’s Financial Risk Compliance offering?

At the highest level, we help our clients manage risk and comply with regulation. We serve banks, software and platform providers, communications and media firms, and life science clients. For example, we help banks manage their financial resources within capital and liquidity constraints, develop resolution plans – also referred to as living wills, and comply with anti-money-laundering regulations, amongst other things. We help non-banks with consumer protection regulations such as data privacy laws. Underlying all of this are analytics, data, and technology, including of course the promise of AI throughout.

Where do you see the greatest opportunities for growth for the business?

Our clients and regulators are increasingly focused on what we call non-financial risk – things like operational risk, resilience, cyber, technology risk, and so on. That’s an area that has not been the focus of risk management as much as financial risk and will see more work. Our clients need support regarding financial crime, including anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance, fraud, and surveillance. Many of our clients are finding a need to focus and invest in this space, including better data, the use of AI, and developing a more mature risk and compliance culture in the organization. Finally, we believe managing the risks associated with AI will be a critical area for clients across industries and we are already helping many firms put in place the appropriate governance and guardrails to enable them to use this technology effectively and responsibly.

How important is it for Accenture to build a diverse and inclusive workforce to mirror the diversity of its clients and the communities it serves?

At Accenture, we believe that attracting, hiring, and developing people who have different backgrounds, different perspectives, and different experiences are essential to driving innovation and serving global companies across multiple industries. This talent strategy has been, and continues to be, fundamental to our goal to be the most innovative company in our industry and to our success, as demonstrated by our results.

What do you see as Accenture’s responsibility to be engaged in its communities and a force for good in society?

Accenture’s purpose is to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity. We serve the world’s largest corporations and governments to help them be more effective, efficient, and deliver value to their customers, constituents, and stakeholders. We empower the world, one community at a time, through collaborating with our clients, ecosystem and nonprofit partners and also empowering our approximately 801,000 people to make a difference. In contributing to progress against a broad spectrum of social and environmental challenges, we prioritize helping underserved people improve their livelihoods and empowering the next generation to build a sustainable future. One example: in fiscal 2024, together with our partners, we reached approximately five million people globally through our Skills to Succeed Academy, a free, highly interactive online training program designed to help learners build the skills and confidence they need to make smart career choices and find and succeed in employment.

What advice do you offer to young people beginning their careers?

I often tell my daughters to engage fully in what they are doing, always strive to do the best they can, and focus on the inputs (which is the only thing they fully control) and not worry about the outcomes (which are not in their control). And, take your work seriously but try not to obsess about your professional trajectory and status – everything usually works out if you do the right things and work hard.