Company – Primitive

Company. Built by operators who have done this before.

Primitive exists to build the infrastructure layer for Agent Capital. The next era of financial services will be powered by AI agents. Not experiments. Not pilxqots. But production systems – delivering measurable ROI across your institution. Primitive is the platform that makes that possible — safely, and at scale.

Zero Disruption

Primitive works with your existing models, systems, agents, & data environment.

Primitives are the building blocks of technology. The atomic elements of how things are assembled. The chromosomes of technology DNA.

This is our fourth wave as a team. We’ve translated internet banking, mobile, cloud, and data into experiences that changed companies, changed regulation, and changed lives.   We are builders, creators, and operators — translators of technology into experiences. And we know that technology only delivers when the people, roles, and workflows change alongside it.

Agentic AI is the next wave. The biggest one yet.  And it starts — like everything — by going back to the beginning. Back to the primitives.

The future isn’t built from scratch. It’s assembled. And we’re here to help — to identify, design, build, operate, and amplify what comes next. Primitives. AI. Agents. Work. Amplify.

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The Team

Derek White

Co-Founder & CEO

A visionary leader across digital transformation in Financial Services, having held C-Suite and CEO positions at Barclays, BBVA, US Bank, Google Cloud Financial Services, Galileo and SoFI. Derek is a Utah-based futurist focussed on delivering amazing banking experiences, and now, on bringing the fourth wave of technology, Agentic AI, into regulated enterprises – building the future of operating leverage
Arun Shanmugavelu

CTO

With Primitive since day one, and the architect behind the platform. With 17 years building enterprise AI inside the world’s most complex regulated institutions — including Project Luna at Citi, one of the industry’s first Gen AI deployments at scale — Arun translates deep technical expertise into governed AI infrastructure that works in the real world.
Tom Well

Co-Founder & CEO

Risk and compliance aren’t constraints at Primitive — they’re the foundation. Tom brings senior risk leadership from US Bank, where he served as CRO for Digital, Innovation and Open Banking, to ensure that governance is built into every layer of the platform. For the institutions we work with, Tom’s experience is the reason examiners get the answers they need.
Paloma Tejada Gasset

Chief Advisor, Culture and People Transformation

Technology transformation fails without cultural transformation. Paloma led the people and culture programmes that turned BBVA into one of Europe’s most recognized digital banks, and advises for McKinsey. At Primitive, she ensures AI agent deployment changes how people work — not just how systems do.
Ian Ormerod

Chief advisor, operations

The operational transformation expert behind Primitive’s delivery methodology. Ian has spent his career turning technology strategy into execution reality — leading digital transformation at Barclays and BBVA, building new digital businesses, and deploying design thinking and agile methodology inside institutions that don’t move easily. At Primitive, Ian ensures that what we build actually lands.
Jack Smith

CFO

A visionary leader across digital transformation in Financial Services, having held C-Suite and CEO positions at Barclays, BBVA, US Bank, Google Cloud Financial Services, Galileo and SoFI. Derek is a Utah-based futurist focussed on delivering amazing banking experiences, and now, on bringing the fourth wave of technology, Agentic AI, into regulated enterprises – building the future of operating leverage

A New Way Of Banking

The team behind the team

Primitive is built by engineers, operators, and product leaders who have deployed systems inside regulated environments. We understand:

how banks actually operate
where transformation breaks down
what it takes to move from pilot to production

This is not theoretical.

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Featured News

Primitive is changing the way banking works forever

Design Partner Programme

Build the future of governed agentic banking. Together.

Places in the inaugural cohort are limited and allocated by fit — not by order of application. We’re looking for a small number of regulated financial institutions ready to move from AI experimentation to AI infrastructure.

Regional and mid-tier banks, $5B–$150B in assets. Board-level AI mandate. A named executive sponsor. A commitment to production — not another pilot.

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