Richard Turrin

Rich Turrin is the international best-selling author of “Cashless - China’s Digital Currency Revolution” and “Innovation Lab Excellence” and an award-winning executive with more than 20 years of experience in fintech innovation. He is also an Onalytica Top 100 Fintech Influencer.

Rich spent the past decade in Shanghai, where he experienced China going “cashless” first hand. This and his lifelong love of finance provided the inspiration for his book, “Cashless.” He now focuses on writing and helping Western companies navigate China’s fast-paced tech marketplace. He also provides commentary on China’s fintech marketplace to international media including print and TV appearances on the Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post and CGTV’s Global Business. Known for his candor and amusing quips, Rich is able to make complex concepts easy for his audience to understand.

He previously headed fintech for IBM Cognitive Studios Singapore (IBM’s Innovation Lab) and headed IBM China’s financial risk team. He led his China team to win the prestigious “Risk Technology Product of the Year” award for his unique hybrid-cloud solution to calculating risk in China’s heavily regulated financial space.

Before joining IBM, Rich was a banker for almost 20 years and a serial innovator throughout his career. Innovating and designing new fixed-income products, he saw firsthand how technology, finance, and regulation all come together to impact innovation. He focuses on thinking “out of the box” and uses his rich finance and technology experience to make fintech and its impact tangible for his clients and readers.