Direct engagement
Clients work with Simon directly throughout. Advisory at this level does not work through intermediaries.
About
The practice
Simon MacDonald
Founder and Managing Partner
Simon MacDonald has spent more than two decades working on banking transformation, operating model, architecture, and governance. His background includes deep work on major and industry-defining change with Lloyds Banking Group in the UK and Siam Commercial Bank in Asia, alongside earlier experience with Macquarie Bank in Australia and broader work across fintech and financial infrastructure.
He founded SCI-CO to provide senior, independent advisory on the decisions that determine whether transformation actually works: the choices about operating model, architecture, governance, data, AI, and new infrastructure that sit between strategy and delivery, and that are too often fragmented across separate teams and workstreams.
That work has included core banking transformation, programme governance and assurance, architecture review, operating model design, Agile ways of working, vendor evaluation, and decision support around digital assets, AI, and new rails.
The work has also involved platform evaluation, partnership development, and proposition work across core banking, cloud, and digital asset infrastructure.
Areas of practice
Banking transformation strategy
Operating Model design and redesign
Technology and Data Architecture
AI strategy and governance
Digital assets and tokenisation
Payments infrastructure and new rails
Programme governance and assurance
Regulatory and control frameworks
Background
2019 — Present
Founder and Managing Partner, SCI-CO
Independent senior advisory on transformation, operating model, architecture, AI, digital assets, and new rails.
2018 — 2022
Advisory and transformation leadership across banking and fintech
Strategic advisory, programme leadership, Open Banking, and fintech platform work across complex transformation environments.
2007 — 2018
Senior leadership across banking transformation, digital, and architecture
Major transformation, architecture, digital, and operating-model leadership, including deep work at Lloyds Banking Group.
2000 — 2007
Consulting, enterprise architecture, and software delivery
Consulting and architecture foundations, including early work with Macquarie Bank.
How we work
What makes this practice different
SCI-CO is a senior-led practice by design. That creates a level of quality, directness, and independence that gets diluted when too much distance grows between the work and the person leading it.
Independent perspective
No parent firm and no vendor agenda. The advice is aligned to the problem rather than the sales model behind it.
Cross-disciplinary thinking
The most expensive decisions sit at the intersection of business strategy, architecture, and control. We treat those as one design problem.
Selective scale
Engagements are defined around what the client actually needs. We don't expand scope to generate fees. We define it to be useful.
Interested in working together?
The right starting point is usually a direct conversation about the decision you're facing.