This month, we shine the spotlight on Khalid Abu-Elsoud, a Lead Solutions Architect at Alrajhi Capital, Udemy instructor, and 2x IBM Champion. With over 12 years of experience, Khalid bridges technical architecture and practical insights to drive enterprise digital transformation.
A Champion’s Journey
Khalid’s favorite IBM product, IBM Event Automation, stands at the heart of his architectural philosophy. “It enables real-time, event-driven interations that empower businesses to address customer needs in a faster, intelligent and more personalized way.” he explains. “In today’s fast-paced world, event-driven architectures aren’t just efficient, they’re transformative.” he continued.
His advocacy thrives through product feedback and case studies, including his key role in the recent Alrajhi Capital's case study with IBM (read here). This remains one of his proudest achievements, where his architectural leadership proved fundamental to the SuperApp’s success and to the company’s broader transformation. His expertise in designing cloud-native and microservices architectures, helped Alrajhi Capital build a scalable, compliant, and future-ready wealth management platform that serves millions of customers. The results speak volumes:
- 40% growth in brokerage volume
- 10x surge in mutual fund onboarding
- 100x increase in international customers
- #1 brokerage firm in Saudi Arabia (up from #2)
- #2 in mutual funds (up from #6)
What fuels Khalid’s commitment to the tech community, is what he considers as “the power of shared knowledge”. Inspired by mentors early in his career, Khalid now pays it forward by guiding others through cutting-edge technology adoption and architectural best practices.
Beyond technology, Khalid dreams of navigating the skies as a pilot. His advice to aspiring IBM Champions? “Start by sharing your knowledge boldly: blogs, feedback, or community talks, and demonstrate how IBM technology drives real impact.”
Recently, Khalid energized peers at the IBM Champions Meetup in Riyadh (May 2025) and is set to inspire again at IBM TechXchange Orlando, where he will speak in a round up session about “Driving Transformation at Scale: Al Rajhi Capital’s Digital Journey with IBM Technologies.”
Lightning Round
- Superpower? Patience and resilience under pressure.
- Cake or ice cream? Cake 🎂
- Cats or dogs? Cats 🐱
- Summer or winter? Winter ❄️ (perfect for travels)
- Morning or evening? Morning ☀️
- eBook or paper book? eBook 📱
- TV shows or movies? Movies 🎬
- Night out or night in? Night in 🏠
- Pool entry? Dip a toe first 🏊♂️
- Drive or fly? Drive 🚗
Connect with Khalid on LinkedIn.
#IBMChampion #IBMChampion-Spotlight #IBMChampions-in-action #SaudiArabia 🚀