USAA’s $250 million contract with IBM to build a Data and AI Center of Excellence (thx AU) is a textbook insider siphon built on premeditated sabotage. Upon taking office, Granddaddy systematically gutted USAA’s internal AI program, creating fake fires to liquidating internal talent to manufacture an operational void. He then hand-picked his personal buddy of 20 years from IBM, Frank, positioning him onto the USAA account just in time to open a $250 million financial pipeline straight to his companion. This was not a strategic vendor selection—it was the deliberate destruction of enterprise assets to funnel a quarter-billion dollars of member money to a personal crony. Never mind the fact that IBM already failed multiple times at effectively deploying AI and we wasted millions of dollars in the process. Now we are losing our brightest data scientists. Can’t wait for the next TH to hear about Granddaddy’s new Ferrari. AU must new kneepads by now.
70 replies (most recent on top)
Worst CIO ever. He really needs to go.
@1aw true
@12h still can't let go of her.. lol.. what a poor soul! She's been gone for an year now, and you still blame her.. granddady is sleeping in his bunker while Paul, a 3P is running the show.. they may have very well hired Paul instead! This just proves one point, 3P are the ones who are actually running this company.. after all they are 70% of the total workforce.
@17d because it’s Dan pointing at anything but himself. That’s how stupid he thinks we are. Notice how he wrote, attempting to sound like what he thinks we would type on this kind of forum. Lol. Whose the id--t, Dan?
@12h Does not makes sense
@15w Yes
@15w lol
@12h Dan did you find us?
@137 correct. This has nothing to do with ramnik or amala. This is all decisions in last 30 days.
@12h I am confused. I thought granddaddy was Dan the current CIO.
@12h - This is related to current team.
@OP The Post is about the interim cio post amala .(Ramnik) Nd his close peer from ibm ,who was hired from ibm.Ibm had paid loads of honey crisp bags of quicko dollares.Members money into cio cabinets .All his subordinates and next levels enabled this
@xx Are you sure about their independence
KSAT most commonly refers to KSAT-TV (Channel 12), an ABC-affiliated television station based in San Antonio, Texas.
@t0 actually ratings and advertising drives their revenue.
@fs you must high dude!!! USAA pays these local companies and you expect a bounce back.. LOL.. speaks volume about the associations talent.
@rh Internal AI team? Like those in DAT.. I mean seriously.. mediocre talent in there.. anyways good night.
@rh there will be no more AI positions in Tech. Elimination is moving on pace.
We have an internal AI team capable of doing all that so what's the end goal with IBM. Is he going to cut the AI team altogether or double the budget for AI with IBM working in parallel?
Wow. These are crazy allegations... I dont even know what to believe
@q2 I sit in GSP. I can see it.
@q1 how do you know this?
@q0 that’s right it’s closer to a total of half a billion of member money to Frankie at IBM
@pz WTH
@OP ha! That’s just half of the total IBM package he’s signing for his IBM bestie. There is more in the works behind this.
@ne ksatinvestigates(at)ksat(dot)com.
Let the members know where their money is going.
@ne that’s right and it’s exactly what they’d prefer we focus on. Infighting instead of expecting ethical leadership. Id--ts.
This post is on fire. We forget the main issue, though & turn against each other
We are a financial company, not a technology company. Yet we keep bringing in low-quality resources from vendors, hiring expensive technical architects who end up teaching technology internally, buying products and then trying to build our own.
You don’t manufacture your own bricks and cement to build a house. For major technology investments, bring in top consultants and true technical experts with big contracts, not body-shopping resources—and stay focused on our core business and strategic goals… i think its a good move if i see from eyes of good leadership !
@en you need to report it to ethics. He'll be fired. They did it to the GSP head a few years ago and the context was for positive enthusiasm. Report it to the press as well.
@fr you crazy??? I mean its laughable you guys think reporting it to KSAT does anything.. guys, you must be high.
@fr thanks. Did you get a bounce back?
@az That is not the correct email address. The correct email address is ksatinvestigates(at)ksat(dot)com.
@fg yes security walked them out same day.
@ej I agree. It is very sad what has happened to a once great company. This seems to be the way of the corporate world. I came to USAA nine years ago thinking it was different. And it was until they started bringing in people from corporate banks and consulting firms to help with the consent order. That action of bring those people in was a deal with the devil because they brought that mindset with them and created the toxic culture that is there now.
@fb is the stuff about teams true?
I feel badly for the devs here at USAA because the culture is clearly so toxic coming from the top
The kind of behavior and attitude isn’t as strong in the business side
Let Technology burn to the ground and so will Dan. Many in Technology will still survive the crash, putting off the fires to retain our members, but Dan will be gone in an instant. I agree, he is the worst CIO we've ever had.
Dan is the first executive in a long time who people are truly "scared" of, all the way up the org chart. People who raised serious concerns about the Teams migration were literally fired over it. Even the person (scrum master? PM? engineer? not sure...) who created the Jira feature about the Teams migration was let go.
Someone posted a concern about Teams in your-voice and their account was deactivated by the end of the week.
I didn't think someone could be worse than Amala, but at least people could voice their concerns without fear of retaliation. It's not like she'd act on the feedback, but people were at least able to cry into the void. Dan? Not so much. Say something he doesn't like and you're gone. He rules with an iron first that is antithetical to the way USAA operates.
He laid off most of his direct reports — people with decades if not a century or more of USAA experience cumulatively — so he could bring in his cronies from other companies. He's done more to damage the culture in Technology that even Amala, and that's saying a lot. The cronyism and good-ole-boy behavior needs to go, and that's not even getting in to the conflict of interest and potential financial gain he's getting from this.
Not sure where he gets off thinking that he can operate that way. He may be able to in the short term because people are too afraid of him to speak up, but with enough external pressure (news, escalation to Juan, etc.), I have a feeling he won't be here long.
In the meantime, do yourself a favor and do not speak up in internal channels if you want to keep your job. He can (and will, and has) fire someone immediately if he doesn't like what they have to say.
@ek please elaborate? I have heard him say extremely foul inappropriate things (he has a favorite word that I personally find offensive as a woman) but if he said that, it’s shameful. We’ve lost our way.
@ek I was there.