Bart Suichies

Product & Technology Leader | Turning foundational technology into commercial reality and future-ready growth in regulated, high-stakes markets | Currently: AI-native products & strategy

Lausanne Metropolitan Area

About

I lead product and technology teams that turn emerging technologies into commercial products in regulated, high-stakes markets. Over 20 years, I have worked at the edge of what is becoming possible, from distributed platforms and blockchain to digital identity and AI-native products. I have scaled digital platforms from zero to market leadership, led product strategy in high-growth post-M&A environments, built high-performing multidisciplinary teams, and shaped product and platform direction at board level. My work spans startups, scale-ups, and large enterprises, with direct engagement across governments, enterprises, and strategic partners. My focus is AI strategy and products, digital identity, data and trust infrastructure, and product innovation in regulated markets. I combine commercial judgement, hands-on technical fluency, and a builder’s bias for turning ambiguity into structured, scalable advantage.

Experience

  • Director of Product at Crane Authentication (NXT)
    Feb 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 6 mos

    Recruited as Director of Product to shape and execute digital product innovation strategy in a rapid growth, post-M&A environment (scaled from 15 to 1200+ employees in 15 months via 3 acquisitions). • Product Strategy & Portfolio: Defined Horizon 2-3 product strategy across a converging digital and physical portfolio for brand and government segments. Introduced a product portfolio framework and led a cross-departmental product-definition initiative to improve clarity, prioritisation, and alignment across business units. • Innovation & Governance: Established a digital product innovation programme, AI-assisted market research capability, and technology trend radar to support evidence-based strategic development. Championed data governance and data quality frameworks as foundations for scalable automation and effective use of AI. • Commercial & M&A: Led cross-functional digital due diligence and investment-thesis work for M&A opportunities, partnering with the group M&A function to assess targets, shape pipeline priorities, and inform acquisition decisions. Worked directly with customers, partners, sales, finance, and executive leadership to translate commercial and regulatory needs into product requirements, business models, pricing, ROI cases, and roadmap decisions

  • Technical Director - Atala at Input Output (IOHK)
    Mar 2022 - Feb 2024 · 2 yrs

    Owned engineering strategy and drove productisation for Atala PRISM, a next-generation digital identity platform for web3. Increased engineering velocity by 3x and drove the transition from a proprietary platform to enterprise-ready, open industry infrastructure through contribution to the Hyperledger Foundation, supporting ecosystem adoption. • Productisation & Strategy: Led the multi-horizon strategy to move Atala PRISM from an internal proprietary platform to production-grade enterprise infrastructure, aligning roadmap, architecture, governance, and stakeholder adoption. • Team leadership & Delivery: Managed a distributed engineering organisation of 20+ engineers across 15 countries, with 40+ cross-functional contributors across product, architecture, delivery, quality, security, and ecosystem workstreams. • Operating Model & Delivery: Redesigned the engineering operating model around empowered teams, clearer ownership, and faster value flow. Reduced release cycles from months to weeks and improved engineering velocity by 3x, while balancing new feature delivery with technical debt and platform quality, validated by a comprehensive third-party security review.

  • SICPA (Lausanne Area, Switzerland)
    • Head of Digital & Software
      Jun 2018 - Dec 2021 · 3 yrs 7 mos

      As Head of Digital & Software, I built and scaled a cross-functional digital organisation across multiple countries, establishing the digital product vision and innovation practice for the company. • Organisational Growth: Led the growth of a digital innovation organisation from scratch across multiple teams and countries, managing internal and external technology teams and key partner ecosystems. Championed and built out digital capabilities for the organisation. • Strategic & Commercial Leadership: Established the product vision for a new portfolio of digital identity, currency, and regulated supply chain solutions. Personally led technology pre-sales and high-stakes engagements with government institutions, NGOs, and industry leaders. • Delivery & Execution: Oversaw the delivery of novel solutions, taking digital identity, currency and supply chain concepts from initial R&D (TRL 1) through various stages up to pilots (TRL 7) in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.

    • Blockchain Tech Program Manager
      Mar 2017 - Jun 2018 · 1 yr 4 mos

      Recruited by the Group CIO to lead the strategic evaluation of distributed ledger and blockchain technology. I assessed its operational fit for potential digital identity, digital currency, and supply chain products tailored for regulated industries and the government sector. • Drove the technology assessment by scouting and collaborating with startups and managing a global ecosystem of internal and external stakeholders. • Developed the foundational case and technical strategy for using distributed ledger technology as a core building block for products that could be used in regulated industries and the government sector, leading to the creation of a new, cross-functional digital organisation.

  • Chair of Decentralized Identity UX Working Group at Sovrin Foundation
    Sep 2019 - Aug 2021 · 2 yrs

    Founded and chaired a cross-industry Decentralised Identity UX working group for decentralized identity; later merged into the Trust over IP Human Experience Working Group.

  • Digital Strategy & Innovation Lead at amazingminds
    Sep 2003 - Sep 2017 · 14 yrs 1 mo

    Independent, hands-on consultant at the intersection of technology, strategy and product, with a focus on the emergent strategic implications of foundational technology trends for businesses. • Operated as a consultant, strategy advisor and fractional technology lead, focusing on the strategic implications of foundational technology trends for businesses. • Served as the "linking pin" between technology, product, and strategy, with a hands-on approach to shaping digital strategies, building technology roadmaps, and managing deployments. • Advised startups and major enterprises on various digital innovation topics. Past clients include: Royal Philips, Wolters Kluwer, the European Commission, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, BMC Advisory, The Dutch Association for General Practitioners (VPHuisartsen), etc.