I'm Safat. For six years I've helped banks, insurers and large enterprises put infrastructure and AI into production, first at Deloitte and now at AWS.
The technology is usually the easy part. The hard part is getting a board, a regulator, an engineering team and a partner to move in the same direction, on the same day. That's the part I own.
I learned ownership in a race car, where nobody else owns the result. Since then I've worked from first principles, backwards from what the customer actually needs, and I read the detail before I write the slide. Most of my teachers live on paper and in my headphones: Naval Ravikant and Nassim Taleb on the shelf; Tim Ferriss, Taleb and Dheeraj Pandey, founder of Nutanix and DevRev, on the go.
Lap 1 / 7
I own hard problems. Until they're solved.
AWS has already solved most hard problems at scale, for millions of customers. My job is to bring that same thinking inward: to my team and across EMEA, solving the people and process problems inside one of the world's biggest technology companies.
2024 — Now
Customer Solutions Manager – Leader · AWS DACH, Berlin
I own a $47.5M ARR portfolio of financial-services, enterprise and strategic accounts, and since 2026 I lead a team of five CSMs. A regulated Swiss firm left its datacenter three months early and avoided ~€3.5M. An insurance broker put AI agents in front of ~400 employees in month one.
Datacenter exits
Agentic AI in production
Regulated FSI
C-suite alignment
Pricing agreements
People leadership
2021 — 2024
Consultant, Banking & Capital Markets · Deloitte EMEA
Owned five Tier-1 bank relationships end to end for three years, and grew one from 3 projects to 7 workstreams as its sole point of contact.
Organised TEDx, wrote my thesis with Deloitte, and worked at Amazon and two startups along the way.
TEDx organiser
Merit scholarship
Thesis with Deloitte
112%of revenue target in 2025
5 / 11CSMs led / people mentored
23peer awards from 16+ colleagues
"Strong bias for action and a hands-on approach. He drives initiatives consistently and always with the customer's best interests in mind. He always goes the extra mile."AWS Senior Leader
In the ideal future I'm redundant. My agents run every step of the deal on their own, and troubleshoot it too. Until then, and after that, here's my CV.
My grandfather came to Germany from Bangladesh with one dream: to survive. His generation survived. Mine gets to thrive. Europe gave us security, stability, free healthcare and, above all, a chance.
Now I want to give Europe its chance back.
So I invest in it, even in the years when the headlines don't. I write my own cheques into pre-seed and seed founders building here, and I support Berlin auf die Eins in making Berlin one of the best cities in the world to start a company, including the AWS partnership for its builder hub.
Builders should not have to leave Europe for SF. If you want the uncomfortable version of why this matters, read Europe 2031 by Judith Dada, Michiel Bakker and co-authors.
I grew up at the limit. Now I chase it across Europe.
It started in go-karts and ended up in Formula 4 in Germany, from 2014 to 2017. Racing taught me the job I do now: read the data, commit to the line, live with the result. These days I spend race weekends travelling across Europe to see every European Grand Prix live, as close to the tarmac as they'll let me.
Sector 1Go-kartsWhere it started. First time I owned a result.
Sector 2 · 2014–2017Formula 4Racing in Germany. Data, discipline, decisions.
Sector 3 · NowGrandstandEvery European Grand Prix, live, across the continent.
Finish · One dayDakar or Nürburgring 24hThe unfinished goal. Back behind the wheel, for the long one.
Lap 4 / 7
I like my coffee light roasted. And from everywhere.
I experiment with beans from roasters across the world, and I bring a bag home from almost every city I visit. This is the kit I brew with today: a Comandante C40 MK4, a Fellow Stagg, a Hario V60 with Abaca filters on a Timemore scale, and an AeroPress for travel days. And this is what's in rotation right now.
Current rotation
Got a bean or a recipe I should try? Send it over.
contact@safatalfahim.com
Beyond the cup, I'm learning to make the cup. Pottery, from scratch. One day I'll post the failures here.
Lap 5 / 7
I geek out over mechanical watches. Years of someone's work, on a wrist.
Someone spent years designing, engineering, carving and finishing a few hundred tiny parts so they'd keep time without a battery. I find that impossible not to love. It's the same obsession as a Formula 1 lap or a good pour-over: tiny margins, done properly.
Berlin time--:--
Ratio1:16
Dose15 g / 240 g
Grind~22 clicks
0:00 Bloom45 g. Swirl, let the gas out.
0:45 PourSlow circles up to 150 g.
1:15 PourFinish at 240 g by 1:45.
1:45 DrawdownHands off. Done around 3:00.
Lap 6 / 7
Off the clock. Where the best ideas come from.
Built to last
I track my recovery, strain and sleep with a WHOOP, and try to live so my body keeps working until the very last day. Marathons, cycling races and HYROX so far; a sub-10-hour Ironman next.
"A healthy person has a thousand wishes. A sick person only one."Often credited to Confucius, but there's no source for that. It's an old proverb, usually traced to India.
New hobby: two wheels
My newest obsession is long rides on a Canyon Endurace AllRoad, tarmac when it's there and gravel when it isn't.
And the rest
BoulderingProblems you can only solve by trying.
SaunaNon-negotiable after a long ride.
PoolHausliga semi-finalist. Still chasing the final.
CookingMostly for people I love, occasionally successfully.
TravelEvery trip ends at a market and a coffee bar.
When I'm not raising the bar
SF
I make playlists. Some of them are even good. They're all public on my Spotify.
In my first year of university, my mentor Isabel, now a VP at Volkswagen, believed in me before I'd done anything to earn it. I want to give the next generation the same belief, and help them skip a few of the career mistakes I made early on.
11 menteesCSMs, SAs and Account Managers at AWS, early-career to senior.
Board advisorReflective Teens: education, cultural enrichment and equal opportunity.
Alumni boardHead of Fundraising, Jacobs University Alumni Association.
Volunteer educatorKiezLab Berlin and Amazon in Communities.
Free drinking water for 100,000 people
The goal bigger than all the others. Clean water changes everything downstream: health, school, time.
8,000 people reached of 100,000
Lap 7 / 7
We may work well together.
I reply to every thoughtful message. Pick the door that fits, or just write.
