dr. ariffin is an accomplished business leader with hands-on technology background.

he specializes in building digital revenue generation pipelines, creating teams to perpetuate product delivery, and driving profitability through innovation.

dr. ariffin was the chief architect at yahoo search in silicon valley from 2013 to 2016 – the first malaysian to hold this top position, one which required the skills and knowledge of technology architecture and digital capabilities to support the organization’s revenue growth initiatives and digital transformation. sharing revenue responsibility with the business unit’s senior vice president, he successfully led the unit generating $5+ billion in revenue per year – a 30%+ increase from $3.5 billion the previous year. in this position he was a key advisor to the c level executives and became part of yahoo’s technology council. in addition to leading a team of business and domain experts, dr. ariffin’s team consisted of more than 200 product managers, 20 technology architects, and 1,000 software engineers.

he was also a chief architect at yahoo communications business unit, a director in yahoo’s mergers and acquisitions business unit and an architect for both the chief architect’s office and the cloud platform group. His almost decade-long career at Yahoo has seen him transform from a technologist specializing in massively scalable systems that incorporate big data and machine learning, into a business leader achieving billion-dollar revenue targets. dr. ariffin’s tenure in 7 different yahoo business units saw him progressively promoted through numerous leadership positions and he was consistently recognized for fostering cohesive relationships across all levels of the organization. dr. ariffin strongly believes in practicing influence over authority and has an approachable but focused “get things done” management style which encourages open communication and personal accountability.

currently, dr. ariffin is founder and strategist at acquro sdn. bhd., a global strategy and technology advisory guiding companies to build sustainable digital revenue pipelines. acquro’s clients include an american pre-ipo digital advertiser, a malaysian merchant bank, and a singaporean sequoia-backed telco. dr. ariffin believes in giving “the fishing rod” rather than “the fish”, consistently delivering bespoke business solutions fusing business acumen, innovation and technology with effective knowledge transfer. his methodologies have maximized clients’ resource value and enabled them to achieve new heights of revenue.

dr. ariffin is an advisor to the international islamic university malaysia and smart city advisory council in melaka, and sits on the board of onemarket, inc., a us-based digital sea shipping container exchange.

he holds a doctorate, and a master’s degree, in computer science from university of california, irvine, and has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from california state university, northridge. he also holds patents, has written books and is listed in 3 out of 5 of the top 5 in the world’s largest technical professional organization.