Redefining Fund Administration | Speaker | Podcast Host | Alternative Investments Innovator

I’ve spent over two decades in fund administration, helping managers across hedge funds, private equity, credit, real estate and digital assets navigate complexity, scale operations, and unlock efficiency.

Since 2015, I’ve worked on the front lines of digital asset fund services—supporting some of the industry's first crypto funds. My work has also included building Gen AI-powered workflows, launching investor portals, and designing fund ops infrastructure from the ground up.

Today, I serve as Managing Director, USA at The Ascent Group, a global fund administrator with $40B+ AUA and a clear vision: combine high-touch service with proprietary, tech-forward solutions that actually work for fund managers.

What excites me?
🔹 Helping GPs scale without sacrificing control
🔹 Supporting  traditional funds and tokenized and digital-native fund strategies
🔹 Collaborating with teams that want to push the space forward

Let’s connect if you're exploring new launches, rethinking your admin infrastructure, or just want to compare notes on where the industry’s headed.

Skyler Steinke

SurveyMonkey

Program Management lead for Insights Core/Surveys Platform portfolio @ SurveyMonkey

Principal, Technical Program Management

Rakuten Kobo Inc.

Major Accomplishments:
* Portfolio Management of Reading Technology Platform 
* Launched Kobo's new Writing Experience & related services to support it.
* Launched Kobo's new Audiobooks Service - it's first major new service since inception. 
* Launched two new entry-level eReaders
* Launched Kobo's first telco partnership - targeting 16M new Orange customers in France.
* Launched the fastest HW SKU in Kobo's history - a device with HW/SW tailored for Manga readers - in less than 3 months.

Sr. Program Manager

Finastra

Finastra was the world's 3rd largest Fintech company
* Worked on the next-gen student lending platform - used by students, governments, educational and financial institutions.
* Led multiple feature teams and Dev Ops teams.

Sr. Scrum Master / Kanban Lead

Rexall Pharmacy Group Ltd.

Delivering retail technology solutions at a national drugstore chain.

* Managed the Air Miles customer loyalty program  across technical and business workstreams.
* Launched new customer experiences and customer insights projects: iBeacons, geo-fencing, POS, apps & mobile web, advanced analytics & nextgen offer targeting.
* Managed Rexall's largest technology upgrade across 450+ stores nationwide; virtualization of POS and pharmacy management systems along with hardware  upgrades.

Kobo Inc.

Major Accomplishments:
* Developed & launched 3 android tablets simultaneously in 9 months - 2 different manufacturers (Wistron & Compal) across 3 SoC platforms (2 NVIDIA & 1 MTK).
* Kobo's first multi-device launch: Kobo Glo and Kobo Mini - supported by new reading services.
* Twice awarded the Kobo Kudos Award for outstanding performance.
* Product Awards: 2 Red Dot Awards, German Design Award and French Institute of Design Award. 

Major Responsibilities:
* Overall program management of a portfolio of new products, services, businesses and partnerships from concept to global launch. 
* Led large, complex and concurrent programs 
* Delivered media products @ speed with minimal resources.
* Worked with ODMs and component vendors - regular travel to Asia.
* Regular reporting to Leadership Team - CXO and SVPs / SteerCo.
* Devised lightweight, lean and agile product delivery methods. 
* Drove scope, schedule, cost and quality management. 
* Managed the following work streams: SW/UX, HW/EE/ME, Industrial Design, Usability, Marketing, BizDev/Sales, Retail/Channel Marketing, Accessories, SCM, Legal, Manufacturing, Customer Care & PR.

Critical Acclaim in the Media:
 "Best Flagship eReader on the Market" - Engadget
 "Best front-lit screen in the business - has surpassed Amazon in terms of Quality" - Good EReader
 "The Porsche of eReaders" - PCMag
 "The Best eReader money can buy" - PCWorld
 "You will be sorry you bought that Kindle" - WIRED 
 "The most polished, highest resolution tablet I have ever used" - Good EReader
 "Make no mistake - Kobo's latest tablet is a top-of-the-range device" - The Next Web
 "Compared to the offerings .. this tablet really is a beast" - Engadget

BlackBerry

* Responsible for managing programs related to the BlackBerry Development Platform 
* Developed and launched SDKs, tools, APIs, UI frameworks, simulators and microsites
* SDK and Tools spanned Java and .NET to HTML5 and cutting-edge Cascades UI libraries and tool kits.
* Lead the development and launch of the BlackBerry PlayBook HTML5 SDK - released in 3 months!
* Scrum Master duties - and everything that entails. 
* Hired to introduce agile practices to speed up SDK delivery in response to Apple’s iOS SDK launch.
* Delivered agile coaching and agile training at BlackBerry.
* Successfully lead the first external audit of products built using agile methods (yes its possible!)
* Led the initiative on how to Attract, Hire, Develop and Retain world class Project/Program Managers - covered interviewing techniques, skills matrix creation, performance evaluation, training processes.
* Managed across multiple work streams such as SW Development/QA teams, Documentation, Security, Developer Relations, Marketing, Legal, OpenSource and IP, and 3rd Party vendors.

Sr. Project Manager / Agile Coach

Call Genie

* Project managed mCommerce and eCommerce products & services. 
* Developed and launched local mobile search and voice applications:  
___ * #TAXI cellular service in the US and Canada
___ * YellowPages voice search system – a direct competitor of Google411
* Helped build and train agile development teams in the Toronto office - rapidly earning parity with the established Calgary R&D centre.  
* Managed 3 teams of up to 15 people in an Agile development environment. 
* Managed multiple teams & projects concurrently – delivering software on-time and on-budget.
* Acted as a facilitator and agile software development coach gradually introducing teams to agile concepts and practices.
* Worked with Product Managers to align product roadmap into a product backlog that can then be worked on by the development team to deliver units of functionality incrementally.
* Worked with both internal and external customers to actively set up demos and trials at the end of each iteration and ensured their feedback was received and acted upon. 
* Communicated real-time projects status to management (Directors and VPs) via Daily Reports and iteration burn-down charts.

Agile Project Manager / Scrum Master

Seagate Technology

* Developed and launched secure online Backup and Recovery products and services 
* One of the earliest implementations of cloud computing and SaaS 
* Used by 40,000+ businesses including U.S Banks, Law firms etc. 
* Managed the program for the company's first simultaneous release of client-side and server-side components along with a web-based admin and management system.
* Used agile delivery and development methods - to overcome significant planning, development and co-ordination challenges.
* Managed 4-5 teams of 30+ people - performed Scrum Master duties.
* Managed multiple teams & projects concurrently – delivering software on-time and on-budget.
* Used Scrum-of-scrums model to manage and co-ordinate server-side, multi-platform client-side, and web admin console projects to deliver a simultaneous release for the first time.
* Spearheaded 3rd party vendor selection, RFP and negotiation activities.
* Communicated projects status to executive management (EVPs) via weekly meetings.
* Worked with all stakeholder organizations to plan and schedule service packs, hot fixes, feature enhancements and new releases.
* Managed sustaining engineering and production support & maintenance activities.
* Helped create budget for development organization.

Project Manager

Software Engineering Consultant (contract)

AT&T OSS/BSS systems:
Developed AT&T's national network event escalation & reporting system (NERS)
Developed AT&T's nation-wide access cost tracking, budgeting and forecasting systems.

General Motors:
Developed GM's national mobile dealer service system.

Technologies: .NET, Oracle/Oracle mobile, Java, IIS, JRun, Tomcat, Apache.

Lead SW Engineer / Software Engineer

Program Management Leader & Practical Agile Coach - Media/Technology/Consumer Electronics/eCommerce/Telecom

"Linchpin: An indispensable individual who can walk into chaos and create order, someone who can invent, connect, create and make things happen. Does not wait for instructions, but instead, figures out what to do next. In short, creates value for the organizations he works for." (Seth Godin)

Imran collaboratively helps lead teams to conceive, develop and deliver innovative award-winning SW/HW products & services that challenge the status quo and break new ground AT SPEED – delivering the highest possible ROI.

Sr. Technology Management professional with 12+ years of leadership experience at large mature organizations and small rapid-growth startups. Big proponent of small, fast, highly-skilled, cross-functional teams - that breathe design thinking. Concurrently managed highly complex programs of up to 100+ people. Thrives in an entrepreneurial fast-paced environment. Agile pragmatist. Post-Agilist.

Managed projects delivering: handheld devices & software, mobile app development SDKs, local mobile search products, voice apps, online backup & recovery products, cloud solutions, SaaS, eCommerce solutions. 

Overall cross-functional program management across the following work streams: software dev, UX, usability, hardware dev, product management, product experience/industrial design, supply chain management, manufacturing, product marketing, channel marketing, business development/sales, customer care, legal/compliance, finance. Getting things done.

Experienced managing teams distributed across North America, Europe and Asia.

Specialties: Consumer Tech, Product/Service Experience Design, Agile Product Development, Strategy, Scrum Wizard, Translate Strategy to Action, Coaching, Team Building, XP, Lean, Herding Cats, Certified Scrum Master, Certified Agile Project Manager, SW / HW / Web Development, ODM management, Consulting, Start-Ups, eCommerce, Mobile Computing, Internet of Things, Social Media, Constructively Challenging the Status Quo - for product and process!

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Skyler Steinke

Imran Hameed

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