Banks & market infrastructure
Programmes that sit across operations, technology, and regulation — payments, post-trade, labelling, and the unglamorous work that keeps a market trustworthy.
Advisory · Financial markets · AI
Clarity between the boardroom and the engine room.
The Business Translator helps leaders in banking, capital markets, and fintech turn complexity — strategy, operations, and AI — into decisions they can act on.
About
Ian Bessarabia
Founder, The Business Translator · Johannesburg
For more than thirty years Ian has worked where financial markets meet the systems that run them — asset management, SWIFT, market data, payments, and post-trade infrastructure across Sub-Saharan Africa.
He translates between people who own the P&L and people who own the pipeline. That is the work: enough market judgement to see what matters, enough operational fluency to see what will actually ship, and a clear view of where AI adds speed versus where it adds risk.
Today that practice sits alongside his role leading the Financial Markets Academy at Maharishi Invincibility Institute, where AI and automation are taught as a red thread through professional education — not a side topic.
Who it’s for
Clients who need a translator, not another slide deck.
Fintech & growth operators
Founders and COOs who must scale infrastructure without losing the plot: resilient operations, AI enablement with governance, and a culture that can change.
Boards & academies
Directors and educators who need a grounded view of how AI is changing the kind of professional the market will need — and what to teach, fund, or stop.
Work together
A conversation, not a pitch.
If you are navigating a market, a platform, or an AI programme and need someone who has sat on both sides of the table, write to Ian or continue the thread on LinkedIn.