Sameer Poonja
Head of Experience & Platforms, Merkle MENA
- 23+ years in Digital and Solution Design
- Certified teacher accredited by Australia
- Vancouver is what I’ve called home my entire life
- For the past two decades, I’ve had a lot of firsts from building Canada’s first wireless vending machine with Coca-Cola to launching Emirates Airlines’ first consumer-facing application — I’ve always started with ‘why’ and paved the way from there on.
- Before co-founding Spades I led Innovation, Partnerships, and Design for the CEMEA region; working with Visa's fintech fast track program - mentoring, incubating, and accelerating new entrants in the CEMEA region – along with establishing and expediting a new a growth strategy for Entertainer.
- I co-founded Spades because I saw an opportunity in spite of the pandemic. I wanted to enable the UAE market to stay ahead of the curve while challenging the status quo of ‘cash being king’. So, I made the leap, and I did what I always did….as Steve Jobs would say “Stay hungry. Stay foolish”.
