About
About Tom Debus
The human behind the risk-sharing promise
An independent Fractional CTO who backs his advice with skin in the game — working fixed-price and sweat-equity to get stuck teams moving again.
30 years at the crossroads of people, data and technology
My story
For three decades I have worked where people, process and data meet technology — the place where transformation actually succeeds or quietly stalls. I spent years inside big-bank change: line management and program leadership at UBS on finance transformation and liquidity architecture, and at Credit Suisse across finance, treasury and compliance. Regulated, high-stakes environments where the wrong architecture is expensive and the right one is invisible.
I then co-founded Ferris Labs / Ferris Solutions AG, where I am CTO, to build data-driven, API-first, event-first and increasingly AI-first platforms. Along the way I earned a dual degree in Economics and Computer Science (DHBW, Germany), and today I coach SME startups and scale-ups, teach, and mentor as an EO Accelerator coach from my base in Basel and Zürich.
What I care about now is the small and medium organization that is stuck. You do not need another advisor billing time and material. You need someone who commits to the outcome — which is why I work fixed-price and take sweat-equity. If I am recommending the path, I will share the risk of walking it with you.
What I bring
Three things that move the needle
Deep transformation track record
Proven in regulated environments
Line management and program leadership at UBS and Credit Suisse across finance, treasury, liquidity and compliance. Large-scale program and organizational change where the stakes and the scrutiny are both high.
Architecture & AI depth
API-first, event-first, AI-first
Data architecture and data-driven transformation at the core, extended into modern API, event and AI-first platforms. IT strategy that turns a vision into an architecture your team can actually build.
People & team focus
Converging fractured teams
Technology is rarely the real problem. I bring distributed and fractured engineering teams to converge, and I coach founders and leaders — hundreds of SME startups and scale-ups over the years.
Trusted by
Relationships built over a career
Trust is earned across banking, insurance, life sciences and professional services. Over the years my work has spanned relationships with UBS, Deutsche Bank, LGT, Julius Bär, Helsana, VP Bank and FNZ — the kind of regulated, complex organizations where results have to hold up under real scrutiny. The proof is in the numbers: complexity reduced from 130 to 6, 36x change delivered, and teams shipping 200% faster.