About Oscar Ricardo Bernal Quintero

Oscar Ricardo Bernal Quintero, With 30 years of working with technology and a clear purpose of continuing to create innovative technological changes, he has always been motivated by the potential for growth and development that technology brings. Since the 1980s, he has been attracted to this sector. How did he choose his career? At school, Oscar  was very interested in mathematics and really liked logic. He was very clear that he needed to study a career that met two requirements: it had a future projection, and he felt familiar with the required skills. This understanding led him to pursue systems engineering at university. Soon after, he discovered finance, and while he continued studying, Oscar  started working at the Coopdesarrollo cooperative in the technology area. In this company, he managed to strengthen his university knowledge in programming and helped different areas through the development of financial applications. During the crisis in the cooperative sector, Megabanco was created—an entity that absorbed the main cooperatives that existed at that time in Colombia. There, Oscar  had the opportunity to guide and develop the process of consolidation and technological fusion of the entities that formed Megabanco. At Megabanco, Oscar Ricardo Bernal Quintero led the technical team, and in 2008, this entity was acquired by Banco de Bogotá, which is how he became the manager of social banking development. Social banking gave impetus to many technology projects, particularly the implementation of the Cédula Cafetera Inteligente, the first smart financial card in Colombia. Developed in conjunction with the Federación de Cafeteros, it has been very important due to its positive impact, serving as a fundamental driving force for connecting the coffee-growing sector to the financial sector, which was previously mostly unbanked. Oscar  was the manager of technological research and planning and then became the Director of Technological Research and Innovation. Here, a special chapter was opened in the areas of innovation, where they developed projects such as a banking consultation system connected to wearables. They developed the first financial app to integrate with the Apple Watch and also developed the first version of banking through social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Oscar Ricardo Bernal Quintero held the position of National Director of Systems and was then promoted to Vice President of Technology. He feels that throughout his professional career, he has managed to unite his passion and his purpose.