Building FinTech Fluency with an Operational Focus: Meet Wake Forest SPS Student Danny Ben-David

Danny Ben-David’s career reflects a steady progression toward roles where finance, operational execution, and technology meet. 

Today, that path has led him to working in Private & Wealth Specialty Lending at Citizens Private Bank, where he serves as Partner Lending Operations Team Lead and Assistant Vice President, while also pursuing a Master of Financial Technology and Analytics (MFTA) from Wake Forest School of Professional Studies (SPS).

Danny began his career after earning his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Binghamton University and starting at KPMG. 

“My mother was diagnosed with cancer, so I left KPMG to work with her at her law firm while she recovered,” he explained. “Even though it was a shift, it was still an extremely valuable experience.” 

After that period, Danny transitioned into the real estate space by joining Winter Properties in 2018, where he was responsible for full-cycle real estate accounting across a multi-property portfolio. In that role, he managed monthly close, tenant billings, cash management, and process documentation, gaining hands-on exposure to how asset-level financial data feeds broader reporting and operational decisions. 

Facing another shift as the pandemic approached, he later transitioned into private equity fund administration, supporting capital calls, distributions, and investor reporting, which deepened his interest and understanding of fund structures and transaction workflows. In 2021, Danny joined First Republic Bank, where he worked in the Financial Sponsors Group and contributed to the operational build-out of a technology platform supporting private equity loans for high-net-worth clients; an experience that directly shaped his interest in fintech and system-driven finance.

“Working on that platform is what sparked my interest in fintech,” Danny recalled.

That interest carried into his current role at Citizens Private Bank and informed his decision to pursue the MFTA. In his day-to-day work, Danny focuses on improving how private wealth lending operations function from a service and execution standpoint, particularly as products and platforms continue to evolve. As he progressed in his career and saw peers pursue advanced degrees, he viewed the program as an opportunity to further develop his technical and analytical foundation and better understand where finance and technology are heading.

Through LinkedIn, Danny connected with Mohamed A. Desoky, Ph.D., MBA, academic director of the MFTA program at Wake Forest SPS. With the support of his family and his manager, Danny began the program in May 2025.

So far, the courses have been immediately applicable to his day-to-day responsibilities: “One of my first courses, Information Systems and Data Management was phenomenal. It puts everything that I do on a daily basis into perspective,” Danny said. “The timing was also perfect because I took it as I was helping implement a fintech solution for one loan of the products offered. The course showed me the where, how, and why of what we were doing in relation to where the data should be and how clean it should be.”

Danny also sees the program as preparation for the future of finance, particularly as artificial intelligence and machine learning become more embedded in financial services. 

“AI and machine learning are going to be part of our future,” he said. “And the program reinforces that while also emphasizing collaboration over replacement. The focus is on the fact that human input is irreplaceable.”

For Danny, that balance between technology and judgment is central to how he thinks about finance. 

“There will always be a need for human analysis,” he said. “We’ve learned in class that human input and human decision-making create alpha opportunities. Those are the rare instances where someone finds that little sliver of hope that they can execute on the deal and make a win for their firm or their team.”

As he continues through the MFTA program, Danny views the experience as a method to strengthen the foundation of work he is already doing. For him, the value of the program lies in its practical focus by building understanding of data, systems, and analytics so that financial products can be executed more thoughtfully and at scale. He sees that combination as increasingly important in banking operations, where technology is becoming central to how complex products are delivered, monitored, and supported over time.

Learn more about our online Master of Fintech program today.