bridging the gap between canary wharf and the blockchain.

For fifteen years, Ehsan Masud’s life was measured in the rhythmic pulse of London’s Canary Wharf. As a CIMA-qualified accountant navigating the marble-clad hallways of Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and HSBC, he lived in a world of "suited and booted" routine, where risk was calculated to four decimal places and career paths were linear.

Then came the silence of 2020. Locked down and watching the world shift through a screen, Masud saw something that made him abandon the safety of institutional banking for the "Wild West" of digital assets.

"I saw the explosion of fintech firsthand... companies were forced into digital transformation," Masud recalls. "It was a leap of faith. I wanted to get out of that highly regulated, highly structured environment. I wanted something more dynamic."

Today, Masud is a Chief Financial Officer at the forefront of the digital asset revolution in the UAE, a region he calls the new "global fintech hub". In a wide-ranging conversation with Randstad’s Konstantinos Parisopoulos intended exclusively for its finance and accounting community members, Masud laid out a blueprint for the modern finance leader, one who must act not just as a guardian of the balance sheet, but as an architect of the future.

Randstad (R): You spent 15 years in the highest tiers of traditional banking: Morgan Stanley, Barclays, HSBC. That is a very safe, structured world. What was the specific trigger that made you leave that for the volatility of digital assets?

Ehsan Masud (EM): It was the pandemic. Sitting at home, watching the world change through a screen, I realised that companies were being forced into digital transformation overnight. I saw the explosion of fintech firsthand, and honestly, I wanted to get out of that highly regulated, "suited and booted" environment. I wanted something more dynamic. It was a leap of faith to leave a linear career path for a sector that many people still viewed with skepticism, but I could see that the infrastructure of finance was fundamentally shifting.

R: People often describe crypto as the "Wild West." Did you find that you had to unlearn your institutional habits, or were they actually your biggest asset?

EM: It’s actually the opposite. You need those habits more than ever. In this space, you often have to be the "adult in the room". When you have a background in 2008-era banking or post-Brexit controls, you bring a discipline that startups desperately need.

Take stablecoins, for example. To the average user, they just look like digital dollars. But as a CFO, I have to apply an institutional risk framework to them. I need to assess the redemption mechanics, the quality of the reserves, and the counterparty risk. You can use the old tools of finance, but the application has to be much more robust because the safety nets aren't the same as in traditional banking.

Quote block: "We are not a cost to the business. We are not a box tick. The engineers build the engine, but Finance builds the navigation system to ensure the car doesn't crash while it’s going 200mph."

R: Let’s talk about the technical side. For the controllers and accountants reading this, the standards for crypto are still evolving. How do you manage the books when the rules aren't written yet?

EM: The standards have definitely struggled to keep pace, but the tools are there if you know where to look. You have to focus on the regulatory intent, mitigating risk and presenting a true view of the business.

There are three standards I lean on heavily:

• IFRS 15 is critical for revenue recognition to prevent the temptation of front-loading revenue, which is a common trap in tech projects.
• IAS 1 is vital for liquidity disclosures, especially when you are holding a mix of fiat, crypto, and commodities like gold.
• And IAS 2 is fascinating for startups—it allows you to capitalise infrastructure costs during the build phase, which prevents your P&L from showing massive losses in those early years.

R: You’ve mentioned that traditional Treasury is becoming archaic. What is the reality of moving money on the blockchain versus the traditional Swift system?

EM: It is the difference between sending a letter and sending an email. In the traditional system, a cross-border payment takes 3 to 5 days to settle, goes through multiple correspondent banks, and costs a significant fee.

On the blockchain, I can move that same value instantly, securely, and with total visibility. It’s almost free. We are seeing this evolve from a speculative tool to real infrastructure. For example, the UAE Ministry of Finance recently executed a government transaction using a digital dirham. That is the future of Treasury: instant settlement without compromising trust.

R: You are based in the UAE now. Why did you choose that region over London or New York?

EM: The UAE has created an incredible "sandbox" for fintech. In the West, the relationship with regulators can be very formal, distant, and sometimes adversarial. Here, the regulators in the ADGM or DIFC might call you by your first name.

It’s not about avoiding regulation; it’s about having a dialogue. They are pushing for innovation while still demanding institutional controls. That clarity allows us to scale and attracts institutional capital because investors know the governance is there.

R: I noticed recently you made a distinction between FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis) and what you call "BP&A." What is the difference?

EM: I think "FP&A" is becoming outdated. It often just tells you whether you are on plan or off plan. That’s reporting history.

BP&A—Business Performance & Analysis—explains why you are off plan and, more importantly, what to do about it. It shifts Finance from being a cost centre to a performance tool. We shouldn't just be box-tickers or scorekeepers. We need to be strategic partners who sit with operations and marketing to drive the business forward.

R: Finally, if you could give advice to a Finance Director looking to become a CFO in this new economy by 2030, what would it be?

EM: The era of the "scorekeeper" CFO is over. If you want to lead in the future, you cannot just be the person who says "no" or the person who reports on what happened last month. The future belongs to the Architects.

Don’t fear the automation of the transactional work; embrace it. Let the AI handle the data entry and the reconciliation. That liberation is your greatest opportunity because it frees you to do what we were actually meant to do: strategic design.

My advice is to stop viewing yourself as a support function and start viewing yourself as a co-pilot. The engineers are building the engine, the sales team is pressing the gas, but we are the ones who build the dashboard and the navigation system. We ensure the car doesn't crash while it’s going 200mph.

You need to be the bridge, the translator between the chaotic brilliance of innovation and the rigid necessity of regulation. That is an incredibly exciting place to be. So, master the fundamentals, yes—be a great accountant first—but then use that foundation to build something resilient. Don’t just count the value; create the framework that allows value to exist. That is the difference between a manager and a leader.