About Us

Our history

2022

  • SQA Consulting outperforms our 2021 figures as we enter 2022.

 

  • SQA Consulting acquires ABC Tech Groups shares within SQA Consulting SEE, making SQA Consulting SEE a wholly owned SQA Consulting Group subsidiary.

 

  • SQA Consulting grows its nearshore Product Engineering capability by an additional 150 resources.

 

  • SQA Consulting expands in Murcia & Serbia

2021

  • SQA Consulting launches 'Eliminator', an Artificial Intelligence-based tool that uses Robotic Process Automation to automatically eliminate screening alerts. It can do this hundreds of times more quickly than a human analyst & with much better accuracy & consistency

 

  • The SQA Consulting Group and ABC Tech Group partner to establish SQA Consulting SEE, adding an additional 40 Product Engineering specialists into our Nearshore consulting pool

 

  • Headquartered in Bosnia and Herzegovina, SQA Consulting SEE is predicted to grow by an additional 100 plus technology specialists during 2021

2020

  • Transformed ways of working for a global payments provider.

 

  • Created BPM’s and LDM’s documenting infrastructure, architecture, service lines and products.

 

  • Eradicated security vulnerability technical debt.

 

  • Stood up 25 CI/CD automated build pipelines.

2019

  • Rebooted a failing multi-million group payments product programme, changing the programme direction & focus.

 

  • Combed releases in order to ensure success whilst maintaining the overall delivery schedule.

 

  • Re-architected project budgets.

 

  • Established geographic shift & support patterns to extend the development & testing timelines by divesting the dev, product, support & test teams across, India, Frankfurt & Zagreb into two teams.

2018

  • Restructured European payment providers' entire QA processes, policies & procures.

 

  • Managed their monthly releases for 12 months.

 

  • Mentored and trained their QA staff.

 

  • Established an E2E automated framework that addressed functional, API, performance & security testing.

 

  • Reduced production defect bleed from 18% to 2%.

2017

  • Created & deployed the test automation for IT framework into IPO.

 

  • Simplified automated test development.

 

  • Implemented industry standards, good practices & promoted code reuse.

 

  • Up-skilled IPO test team, & integrated the framework with IPO’s strategic lifecycle management tool of choice.

2016

  • Designed & implemented the delivery assurance & TCoE framework into DWO, providing a robust & proven operating model.

 

  • Built a roadmap for the TCoE consisting of prioritised business goals.

 

  • Deployed 80+ QA resources operating at either an expert or practitioner level across automation, performance, security, OAT, accessibility, environment & tooling.

2015

  • Expands into the USA.

 

  • Provides white labelled leadership resource into one of the fastest-growing UK consultancies.

2014

  • Launches Country Risk Index (CRI) product.

 

  • Enable the delivery of 5 strategic programmes for Irelands largest B2B company.

2013

  • Releases Cities, Towns, Regions & Ports (CTRP Gold) product.

 

  • Manage delivery assurance for retail banks digital services theme, this included paperless correspondence, online loan servicing, travel flag, overpayment calculator, credit card loyalty, paperless marketing, commercial registration & instant activation, lost & stolen cards, view transaction details, close current account, investments, fixed term deposit maturity instructions, view earmarked funds, straight-through processing, close saving account, instant activation digital adoption – retail.

2012

  • Incorporates in Ireland to service Irish banking clients.

 

  • Delivers one of the largest telecommunications projects in Ireland.

2011

  • Launches 'Data Profiler' & 'Sanctions Assessment Centre'.

 

  • Restructure, manage & successfully deliver, a two-year fund account management programme, consisting of 322 funds with a £129 billion gross annual FoF holding.

 

2010

  • Become a globally-recongnised sanctions assurance provide.

 

  • Become responsible for the technology validation strategy & execution relating to the creation of a new UK bank.

2009

  • Approved/preferred supplier to 15 banks globally.

 

  • Engaged for two years by a global financial services company to setup and staff their test centre of excellence.

2008

  • Founded, focusing on technology-based quality assurance solutions.

 

  • Engaged by UK retail bank to undertake the NFT of their new digital banking platform.

OUR VISION

SQA Consulting develops partnerships with clients which improve the efficiency of their business processes & the quality of IT products & systems.

Our complete approach to intelligent business process automation demonstrates clear business results in reducing cost, improving performance, mitigating the risk of process failure & enhancing organisation values. 

For more than a decade, SQA Consulting has built a global client network in various sectors including investment & retail banking, information technology & telecommunications, government, law, energy & healthcare.

We have grown our business with talented people who understand your challenges & who can provide tailored technical solutions to address them. 

We are proud of our success & we are dedicated to our clients. 

We work hard to nurture our employees through our company culture, as we focus on the real value that we bring to your organisation.

our leadership team

Get In Touch

Patrick Chatee

Group Chief Executive Officer

Patrick is an accomplished IT professional with 30+ years of QA, change management, cyber security, & digital transformation experience. He has proven expertise with a variety of development methodologies including DevOps, Agile, Waterfall, V-Model, RAD, Test Driven, Business Process Driven & Exploratory Testing methods. His past experiences include many hands on projects that involved accountability or responsibility for technology transformation, QA transformation, automation evolution, managing large development & SDET teams (on premise, near shore & offshore), technical mentoring, & stakeholder communication & management.

As CEO of SQA Consulting, he uses his knowledge of large-scale development & integration projects to ensure exceptional results & client satisfaction. He works closely with customers to shape the solutions that best fit their needs, & then ensures each project is properly resourced & completed on budget & to specification.

This approach has helped SQA Consulting to become an industry leader in business technology & infrastructure transformation, particularly within the Fintech, payments, fund management, loyalty, travel, & telecommunications industries.

Patrick has delivered strategic consultancy to UBS, Bank of New York Mellon, Barclaycard, Barclays Bank, Lloyds Bank, Virgin Money, Department of Work & Pensions, Nets Concardis & Docomo Digital Payments.

Patrick’s specific expertise includes:

  • Advisory & Transformation
  • Agile Enablement
  • DevSecOps Enablement
  • CI/CD Pipeline Enablement
  • Cloud Migration
  • Security Vulnerability Identification & Remediation
  • Tooling Migration & Integration
  • Business Process Modelling
  • Demand, Change & Release Management
  • Process Cost Optimisation

 

Patrick spends his spare time with his grandchildren & extended family.

 

 

Jeremy Round

Group Managing Director

Jeremy is a computer scientist who helped develop the next generation of mainframe computers before moving on to see the world, meet people, & find out how those computers were used. Initially specialising in data warehousing, in 2005 he was invited to fix a large bank’s significant problem about sanctions compliance & a very big fine. He has been working on sanctions-related problems ever since, covering four continents & over 20 global brands.

Jeremy has developed screening systems, created assurance services to cover sanctions compliance & data quality, & built niche tools to help firms overcome globalisation challenges. His software is in active use in over 100 countries and his insider knowledge of performing assessments on behalf of regulators, dealing with regulator pressure on behalf of banks, as well as his close relationships with major vendors, gives him a unique breadth of knowledge across the compliance ecosystem.

Matija Pavelic

Chief Executive Officer (South East Europe)

Matija is a passionate software engineering executive with strong leadership experience & a track record of growing start-up products & building IT service delivery teams. Matija is a hands-on engineering executive across all aspects of software development, product, operations, performance & deployment. He has over 20+ years of experience in building & delivering premium IT software development services & he is responsible for our South East Europe software engineering pool & operations.

Matija has experience in start-up & large corporate business environments & throughout his career, he has worked for many different international companies & has led different cross-functional product development & IT service delivery teams mostly across different geographies.

Matija’s specialities:

  • IT Management
  • IT Product Development
  • IT Service Delivery
  • SDLC consultancy

Matija is a strong believer in transparency, open communication, & honesty.

Bruce Hein

Managing Director (USA)

Bruce Hein is a compliance professional with over 15 years of experience in regulatory compliance consulting, consultative sales & business operations.  As a Senior Consultant, Bruce has supported & led engagement teams in diverse financial institutions and has provided subject matter expertise in the areas of:

  • BSA/AML
  • Global Economic Sanctions
  • Risk Management
  • Financial Crime Compliance
  • Assurance Reviews

 

In addition to his Senior Consultant roles, Bruce has worked extensively in the Information Services industry with a primary focus on systems & data solutions that supported BSA/AML /OFAC regulatory compliance requirements within multiple verticals of the financial services industry.

Bruce’s multifaceted work experience has developed a strong foundation of subject matter expertise for both regulatory & technology-based requirements.  Bruce’s core competency & specialty areas include the following:

  • OFAC Screening System Sales & Implementations
  • OFAC Compliance Program Reviews
  • OFAC Policy/Procedure & Test Plan Development
  • OFAC System Assurance Reviews
  • Implementation & Optimization of Filtering Systems
  • Team & Project Leadership on OFAC/AML Engagements

 

Bruce has managed & directly contributed to multiple compliance consulting teams at several of the top tier global financial institutions both domestically and internationally.  Assignments have included OFAC audits & Global Sanctions Program reviews, OFAC Program development, OFAC-related lookbacks, OFAC filtering system implementations/effectiveness assessments & data quality assessments for OFAC screening.

Selwyn Chatee

Operations Director

Selwyn is an operations specialist with over 30 years’ experience successfully delivering, complex Infrastructure contracts, projects & programmes. He is a proven highly dedicated leader with experience in managing & developing high performing teams that deliver bespoke transformation solutions worldwide.

He is a strong communicator with an eye for detail, he is renowned for his efficiency in relation to relaying critical information & his excellent relationship management skills across our technology business units. He has a pragmatic approach to getting the required results applying science & method to solving problems & developing business processes.

Selwyn consistently manages our consulting pools performance, motivating staff on an individual & team level. His key areas of expertise include developing, implementing & executing strategic programmes of work, cost effective resource management planning & delivering all aspects of customer service.

Key Strengths:

  • Leadership – demonstrable ability to translate strategic imperatives & translate these into clear operational objectives for relevant stakeholders
  • Business Acumen – effective management of available resources in order to deliver the required ROI
  • Drive for Results – commitment to achieve tasks & enable teams to deliver results, whilst also working to the highest standards of quality & performance
  • Change Management – good understanding of industry standards facilitating prompt decision making in order to meet customer need
  • Project Management – pragmatic approach to setting structured processes to ensure that the business meets its short & medium term objectives

Zana Budima

Country Manager (Kosovo)

Zana is an entrepreneur driven by passion, curiosity & a strong belief that technology belongs in every field & industry. She leads our SQA Consulting SEE division in Kosovo & helps our clients develop products that serve millions of users worldwide.

Zana has more than 15 years of professional experience in project management, & product & business development in the profit & non-profit sectors.

Zana has a masters in both engineering & management, she is an active member of the ICT community & shares her skills & experience with others through training, lectures & mentorships, & looks forward to the ideas & solutions that emerge as a result.

Zana is one of the founders of DigiWomen cluster, which aims to propel women’s participation as entrepreneurs & leaders.

Zana is also a board member of the Kosovo ICT Association & the Innovation Center Kosovo.

Zejnil Jaganjac

Country Manager (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

Zejnil is our Country Manager for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has over 15 years  IT experience within the private & government sectors, with a career spanning different fields, such as web design, graphic design, networking & IT education, just to name a few.

Zejnil is constantly challenging himself, his journey first started to grow in the field of management, as a team lead, where he lead small specialised teams, & then as a project manager, where he managed bigger cross-technology teams & projects. From there, Zejnil then had an opportunity to work as the Head of IT department, where his passion for great management & the well-being of workers, fully presented themselves, thus propelling Zejnil into his current role as SQA SEE Country Manager.

Zejnil’s key strengths are:

  • Management
  • Team Leadership
  • NLP
  • Softskills

Daniel Oates-lee

Head of Enterprise Security

Daniel is the Head of Enterprise Security for SQA & has over 20 years of commercial IT experience, with 15 years focused on cyber security. Daniel has worked with some of the largest global financial companies, UK government & the British military department on various projects ranging from security policy writing to technical implementations, red teaming & pen testing. Daniel has focused on DevSecOps & automating security testing over the last three years.

Daniel has various vendor professional qualifications such as CCNA, MCSE & OSCP.

In his spare time, he volunteers to help run & deliver talks at cyber security conferences, whilst also carrying out his own personal research.

Deepak Sharma

Head of Robotic Process Automation

Deepak is a seasoned consultant with over 15 years of experience in software automation for test & RPA. He has worked with major global & governmental enterprises both in the UK & the US. Automation has been a theme & now a speciality of Deepak’s career, featuring projects for a variety of applications & industry sectors.

 

Deepak is passionate researcher who writes about market trends, adoption challenges, & implementation approaches for the RPA Industry. He is an evangelist of a design centric approach to RPA based on top down strategic methodology, standard practices & collaborative processes between business & IT. His aim is to unlock the potential for enterprise customers in order to reach the next level in business process optimisation & to act as a catalyst for digital transformation & business model innovation.

 

Deepak holds a bachelor’s in Computer Science & Engineering degree & a Masters in Strategy & Innovation from the SAID Business School, University of Oxford. He achieved distinction in Innovation Strategy focused on market evolution & implementation of nascent technologies such as Robotics, 3D printing, AI & Big data.

 

Robert Rickards

Head of AML Consulting

Rob is the Head of AML Consulting for SQA, bringing a wealth of business, AML and IT delivery expertise, from a career working across global Tier 1 banks, the UK regulator and the UK’s critical national infrastructure.

Having held senior Financial Crime Compliance positions in 2nd Line of Defence (2LOD), transformation teams, and coupled with a proven record of delivery, Rob is able to balance the demands of an ever changing legal/regulatory landscape, against business (industry) expectations.

Rob has developed an in-depth knowledge of AML, sanctions, embargoes, CTF and PEPs, built upon practical experience of the entire customer lifecycle and underpinning regulatory framework including:

  • Screening,
  • Transaction Monitoring,
  • KYC, Customer Due Diligence, Enhanced Due Diligence
  • Customer Risk Assessment,
  • Financial Crime / Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessments,
  • Financial Crime Controls, Governance and Reporting.

Sarah Connolly

Head of AML European Union

Sarah leads SQA Consulting’s AML operations with the European Union, based in Ireland. Sarah has gained both knowledge & experience working both as a consultant & as a manager within the banking community. Her insight gained whilst being responsible for the business operations of all financial crime related technology in a major bank has given her a deep understanding of how to address risk, maintain effectiveness, & get ahead on efficiency, the three values of financial crime systems on which SQA Consulting base its products & services.

Sarah’s practice includes advisory consulting, auditing, & development of the SQA Country Risk Index. Contact Sarah if you wish to understand, audit, tune, or replace any of your financial crime systems.

Tahir Idrees

Head of Quality Assurance

Tahir has worked for more than 20 years in software testing & quality assurance and has hands-on experience in large transformation initiatives, systems, decommissioning, infrastructure & AML regulatory compliance projects. He has defined test strategies & plans for programmes, ensuring their alignment with business objectives, test standards & best practices. He has extensive experience in a range of software testing types; including functional, non-functional, regression, integration, UAT & OAT.

For most of his career, Tahir has worked alongside cross-functional software development teams, managing the delivery of testing. Ensuring that the preparation & execution of testing remains on track, acting as an escalation point for issues as they arise, ensuring that 3rd party providers to projects deliver in line with their responsibilities in respect of testing and ensuring that regular, accurate progress updates are provided to stakeholders. He has supported Test Automation by ensuring that wherever appropriate, testing tools & automated regression test packs are implemented & that the regression tests are constructed in a way that facilitates automation. Tahir has worked across most verticals providing consultancy within financial services, retail, logistics/ supply chain, telecoms, and pharmaceuticals.

Tahir draws on his experience & knowledge of software testing to ensure QA teams meet project deadlines, ensuring software delivered is functional, reliable & meets the end user’s expectations.

Tahir’s specific experience includes:

  • Defining QA strategy, approach & execution
  • Working within agile development scrum teams & use of agile tools
  • Ensuring the appropriate testing tasks are scheduled during release & iteration planning
  • Monitoring of all the QA activities, test results, defects, root cause analysis & identifying areas of improvement
  • Implement steps required to improve processes
  • Creating & presenting testing metrics & testing activities for projects to key stakeholders
  • Mentoring & coaching to QA team members
  • Agile & Waterfall methodologies
  • Scrum & ISEB certifications

Imran Mahmood

Head of AML Investigations

Imran has over 10 years of AML experience and is a recognised Subject Matter Expert in Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Investigations. He has counselled his clients on a variety of compliance program reviews, remediation assignments, alert investigations & historical transaction reviews. 

Imran’s clients include global payments institutions, international banks, asset management firms & multinational corporations. He leads SQA’s AML Investigation projects & has held senior compliance leadership positions at several global & regional financial institutions.  

Imran’s experience includes: 

  • AML Subject Matter Expert  
  • AML Auditioning  
  • Customer Screening Investigation  
  • PEP Screening Investigations  
  • Special Interest Persons Investigations  
  • Payment Screening Investigation 
  • Project Management  
  • Know Your Customer/Business KYC/B 
  • Quality Assurance  

Ian McKelvey

Head of AML Assurance

Ian is an IT professional with over 30 years industry experience, having played key roles in all aspects of the software development lifecycle including requirements gathering, functional specification, development, testing & implementation.

For the last 6 years, as a member of SQA’s Financial Crime Risk Management business, Ian has provided consultancy in Sanctions/AML regulatory compliance, conducted auditing & assurance work on screening systems & screening controls for various large financial institutions globally.