This character map provides a comprehensive overview of the key characters in The Last Sprint, highlighting their roles, motivations, personalities, and relationships. It helps readers understand the complexities of each character and their contribution to the story.

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Key Characters:

1. Pierre Olivier

• Role: Managing Director of the Bank (French)
• Personality: Charismatic, deeply respected by all, he is the “spiritual father” of the bank who embodies its success and reputation. Though distant and often detached from the day-to-day struggles of his teams, he is deeply insightful and has a clear vision for the bank’s future.
• Motivation: To ensure stability and growth for Banque Verdienne while embracing innovation to remain competitive in the financial sector. He believes in transformation but is patient, understanding that it will take time.
• Key Traits: Strategic, visionary, calm under pressure, respected leader.

2. Bruno Châtelain

• Role: Head of Innovation and Data Governance (French)
• Personality: Charismatic, highly intelligent, and deeply strategic. Bruno is the architect of the Galite transformation project, tasked with driving operational efficiency and leveraging data to streamline the bank’s operations. He is a natural leader with a pragmatic approach to solving problems.
• Motivation: To lead the transformation, aligning the bank’s IT and operational functions to deliver better business outcomes and enhanced efficiency.
• Key Traits: Intelligent, visionary, persuasive, goal-oriented.

3. Gaspard Thibault

• Role: Chief Information Officer (French)
• Personality: Competent and experienced, with a background rooted more in Ops than Development. While he’s a fair leader, many view him as overly inclined to side with Ops teams during incidents. His demand for excellence is unwavering, which can sometimes create tension.
• Motivation: To maintain high operational standards and drive organizational success, focusing on improving the bank’s IT infrastructure while managing operational risk.
• Key Traits: Fair, demanding, professional, highly experienced.

4. Gabriel Garnier

• Role: Head of Development (French)
• Personality: Gabriel’s career started as a developer at a software publisher before it was bought by the bank. He has climbed the ranks through hard work and dedication but has been shaped by a difficult psychological period, which has contributed to his tough exterior. Despite his sometimes difficult character, Gabriel is a good person who listens when the right arguments are presented. He tends to have more trust in his Paris-based collaborators than in the Tunis team.
• Motivation: To ensure that projects are delivered on time and to specification, focusing on efficiency and quality. He deeply cares about the success of his teams, but his leadership style can sometimes alienate those outside his immediate circle.
• Key Traits: Resilient, pragmatic, experienced, emotionally tough, but at his core, a good leader.

5. Ulrich Traube

• Role: Head of Operations (German)
• Personality: Very professional and well-liked by all. Ulrich’s calm demeanor and deep understanding of operational processes make him a trusted leader. He excels at maintaining stability and reliability in his operations but avoids the chaos of the political battles around him.
• Motivation: To ensure operational excellence and that systems are reliable, minimizing downtime and disruption to business processes.
• Key Traits: Calm, empathetic, professional, collaborative.

6. Yannick Durand

• Role: IT Architecture Team Lead (French)
• Personality: Highly technical, Yannick believes that architectural theory should dictate the way systems are built. He is often critical of the nearshore development teams, seeing them as practitioners rather than visionaries.
• Motivation: To ensure architectural integrity and uphold technical standards, often at the expense of practical collaboration with the Dev teams.
• Key Traits: Intellectual, theoretical, sometimes aloof and dismissive of practicality.

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Business and IT Vertical Representatives:

7. Joséphine Charron

• Role: BV of Private Banking (French Woman)
• Personality: Joséphine is highly anxious, particularly in moments of crisis, and is prone to panic. She has high expectations but often escalates minor issues into significant problems, especially in her interactions with the nearshore team.
• Motivation: To ensure the smooth operation and reliability of the Private Banking systems, with a focus on maintaining high standards for client satisfaction.
• Key Traits: High-strung, results-oriented, occasionally abrasive, but deeply invested in her department’s success.

8. Manfred Schwarz

• Role: BV of Asset Management (German Man)
• Personality: Pragmatic, decisive, and focused on delivering results. Manfred has a strong business-oriented mindset, and while he respects IT, he is quick to criticize delays or failures.
• Motivation: To ensure that IT meets the needs of Asset Management, which drives the bank’s bottom line. He seeks reliable, functional systems that can scale as the business grows.
• Key Traits: Practical, direct, business-driven, tough negotiator.

9. Subject Matter Expert (Pragmatic Ally)

• Role: Expert in finance with basic coding knowledge
• Personality: Practical and user-focused, this character bridges the gap between business needs and technical capabilities. Though not fully immersed in the technical side, they advocate for solutions that enhance user experience.
• Motivation: To align IT solutions with real-world business needs and improve the user experience by ensuring systems are intuitive and functional.
• Key Traits: Empathetic, straightforward, problem-solver, highly user-focused.

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Key Nearshore Characters:

10. Mohamed Ben Jemaa

• Role: Head of Nearshore IT (Tunisian)
• Personality: Full of good intentions, Mohamed fights daily to support his team in Tunis while navigating the difficult landscape of Parisian top management. The Tunis site is seen as an executive body rather than a decision-making body, putting Mohamed in a fragile position. He is an experienced and empathetic leader, though his power is limited by the organizational structure.
• Motivation: To empower his team in Tunis, striving to improve the relationship between Paris and Tunis while pushing for greater autonomy.
• Key Traits: Compassionate, resilient, politically savvy, dedicated.

11. Slim Benali

• Role: Developer in the Nearshore IT Team (Tunisian)
• Personality: Quiet, observant, and highly intelligent. Slim is tasked with observing and reporting on the dysfunction within the IT department, but over time, he becomes a key ally to Mohamed and the transformation project.
• Motivation: To assist in the transformation, helping Mohamed and the Tunis team gain respect and autonomy. He is strategic and operates quietly behind the scenes.
• Key Traits: Insightful, strategic, emotionally intelligent, patient.

12. Amira Ben Youssef

• Role: Agile Coach (Tunisian)
• Personality: Energetic, collaborative, and passionate about Agile practices. She works to foster communication and collaboration between nearshore and Paris teams, introducing Agile principles into the work environment.
• Motivation: To empower teams through Agile practices, creating transparent communication and efficient workflows.
• Key Traits: Optimistic, team-oriented, motivating.

14. Warda Ben Ali

• Role: HR Business Partner, Nearshore (Tunisian)
• Personality: Supportive, diplomatic, and highly empathetic. Warda navigates the pressure of both supporting her colleagues and managing the demands of top management.
• Motivation: To support the well-being of the Tunis IT teams while balancing the demands of senior leadership.
• Key Traits: Compassionate, emotionally intelligent, diplomatic.

15. Chief Transformation Officer Nearshore IT

• Role: Transformation Lead in the Nearshore IT (Tunisian)
• Personality: Strict, introverted, and highly ambitious. Though he works closely with Gabriel Garnier, he is driven by personal ambition and the desire for professional advancement.
• Motivation: To drive the transformation in Tunis while seeking career progression within the organization.
• Key Traits: Ambitious, result-driven, reserved.

16. Head of Nearshore ISM (Information Security Management)

• Role: Head of Information Security in Nearshore IT (Tunisian)
• Personality: Detail-oriented and focused on security. He often finds himself in conflict with development teams due to differing priorities.
• Motivation: To ensure the security and integrity of the bank’s systems during the ongoing transformation.
• Key Traits: Cautious, meticulous, focused on security.