This International Women’s Day 2021, we’re celebrating the latest achievements of females in fintech with a roundup of the industry’s most recent leadership moves.
First female CEOs
Hana Al Rostamani has more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry and in January became the first female CEO of First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB).Taking over from Andre Sayegh as group CEO at the lender, Al Rostamani previously held the roles of deputy group CEO and head of personal banking. FAB recently unveiled plans to create opportunities to collaborate with fintechs to drive the payments ecosystem.
Last month saw Carol Nelson unveiled as the first female CEO of Monzo‘s US division. Nelson, previously CEO of Cascade Bank and senior VP at Bank of America, has worked as a strategic adviser for the UK-based bank since December 2019.
Other CEO appointments
In January, Pushpay, the payments provider for the faith-based, non-profit and education sectors, named Molly Matthews as CEO. Matthews, the company’s former chief customer officer, succeeded interim CEO Bruce Gordon who remains on the board of directors.
Meanwhile, digital health provider Reframe recently unveiled Catherine McDermott as CEO. The former McKesson and Amazon director joined Reframe to drive its growth efforts, while strengthening its position in the market.
Last month, Valour, the Swiss-based issuer of investment products, appointed Diana Biggs as CEO. In her new role, Biggs will lead the company’s expansion, following the recent launch of its no-fee bitcoin exchange Bitcoin Zero. Prior to joining Valour, Biggs was global head of innovation for HSBC Private Banking, where she led on fintech partnerships.
January delivered the appointment of Nicola Anderson as chief executive of industry leadership body FinTech Scotland. Previously a senior regulator at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Anderson was interim chief executive when Stephen Ingledew stepped into a new position of executive chair in November 2020
Marketing movers
ApexEdge, a partner-enablement platform that offers monthly bill and subscription management solutions, recently promoted Laura Beaulieu to vice president of marketing. She will oversee the development and implementation of the company’s overall marketing strategies, as well as build relationships with affiliate partners and consumers.
February saw Dana Averbouch make the move to Panaya as chief marketing officer. She also joins the company’s executive leadership team. Panaya, which provides cloud-based application delivery and testing solutions, said Averbouch will help it accelerate change intelligence processes.
Transformation drivers
Dr Saeeda Jaffar, managing director and head of Middle East in Alvarez Marsal‘s Dubai office, was appointed an independent board member at United Arab Bank for a term of three years last month. Her focus is on strategy, operational turnaround and transformation programmes.
Meanwhile, in February, data platform mnAI appointed Jill Pay as a non-executive director in order to lead its charge towards more gender technology in business. Pay was previously Serjeant at Arms in the House of Commons – the first woman to hold the position. Together, they hope to transform the way in which under-represented business groups are supported and provide billions of data points on women owned and led UK businesses.
Other leadership roles
In February, investment management firm Invesco named Gwendolyn Ansah Smith as managing director for Africa. She will explore and lead efforts to develop, execute and manage Invesco’s Africa business. Additionally, she will also harness Invesco’s expertise to provide investors across the globe greater access to the burgeoning Africa market.
In January, investing social network Public.com welcomed fintech veteran Sruthi Lanka as chief financial officer. She joined from MoneyLion, the fintech startup and challenger bank, where she served as VP and head of strategic finance.
Digital transformation consulting firm Synechron unveiled Susanne Guntermann as head in the Netherlands. She is the first woman to lead the Dutch business unit of Synechron. Prior to joining Synechron, Guntermann worked for more than 15 years in customer-oriented roles in areas, such as strategy, business development and investment products and services.
We’ve seen Bank of England‘s Cordelia Kafetz join Starling Bank as head of financial risk. After more than 15 years at the Bank of England, Cordelia Kafetz departed her role as leader of the Bank’s payments policy team. Outside of work, Cordelia has trained as a wildlife safari guide in Africa.
In January, Mambu, the SaaS banking platform, appointed Langley Eide as chief financial officer to drive the company’s growth strategy. Eide previously worked at Morgan Stanley, ServiceNow, Alteryx and Kespry.
Also in January, Galileo hired Archana (Archie) Puri as its first chief product officer. The former PayPal executive will lead development, maintenance and execution of the global payments platform’s new and existing products.
Last month, startup Sleek appointed Pauline Sim as its new head of fintech and strategic partnerships. She was previously senior vice president of United Overseas Bank’s fintech, ecosytstem, and innovation division.
Finally, payments provider SETL hired Marjan Delatinne, the former head of banking at Ripple. Delatinne’s remit is to improve existing legacy technology in order to drive digital transformation across the payments industry. She also joins SETL’s executive management team as head of payments.
