The Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology of 2022

The Financial Technology Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology of 2022. Perhaps no industry today is as dynamic as financial technology. Thousands of new fintechs are launched each year, but only a small percentage demonstrate the staying power to last in such a competitive market. While many begin with truly great ideas, it takes much more to build a successful company. To make it in the long run, fintechs need to acquire financial support, get the word out through marketing, and constantly be innovating—not to mention ensuring that their operations run efficiently and that they remain in compliance with regulations. And for all of these necessities, great leaders are essential.

Some of the distinguished women on this year’s list include Finastra’s Chief Marketing Officer, Margaret Franco, who is responsible for global end-to-end marketing and demand generation and also leads the company’s sales academy. Meanwhile, Cellulant’s Chief Growth Officer, Milkah Wachiuri, leads the team that drives organic and inorganic growth for her company, finding opportunities that drive operational excellence and building on their strategy to generate continued funding for the business. And Prime Trust’s Chief Product Officer, Sara Xi, is responsible for product strategy, roadmap, and product development from ideation to launch, collaborating with engineering, ops, sales, marketing, and compliance to create disruptive products at scale for Prime Trust customers globally.

The women on this year’s list hold a range of positions, from Vice President to Managing Director to roles across the C-suite. What they have in common is the steady hand and practiced leadership they have demonstrated, utilizing their expertise and sound decision making to guide their companies to growth and innovation in a rapidly evolving fintech industry. Please join us in celebrating The Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology of 2022.

 

1. Martha Sazon
Company: GCash (Mynt – Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc.)
Title: President and Chief Executive Officer

Martha Sazon took over as President and Chief Executive Officer of GCash Holdings’ Philippines-based company Mynt — a partnership between Globe Telecom, Ant Group, and Ayala Corporation — in June 2020, when huge swathes of the Philippine population were still locked down by COVID-19. The GCash app transforms a mobile phone into a virtual wallet for secure money transfers. It has pioneered a succession of mobile micropayment schemes, enabling customers to send money domestically and internationally or make online payments.

Mynt is a leader in mobile financial services focused on accelerating financial inclusion through mobile money, financial services, and technology. As an affiliate of Globe, Ant Group (affiliate of Jack Ma's Alibaba), and Ayala, Mynt provides secure, accessible, and convenient fintech solutions to individuals, businesses, and organizations. It is recognized as the Philippines’ first tech double unicorn with the support of its distinguished local and global shareholders.

Prior to Mynt, Sazon was Senior Vice President of Globe Telecom’s broadband business. Before that, she was Marketing Director and Category Leader for Asia for GlaxoSmithKline Philippines, Inc., and Senior Product Manager for Del Monte Philippines, Inc. Sazon holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration and accountancy from the University of the Philippines.

 

2. Christina Colby
Company: Guidewire Software
Title: Chief Customer Officer

As Guidewire’s Chief Customer Officer, Christina Colby helps customers realize optimal value throughout their journey with Guidewire. Previously, she led the company’s cloud sales strategy globally, leveraging her commercial and operational cloud experience. Guidewire is the platform P&C insurers trust to engage, innovate, and grow efficiently. It combines digital, core, analytics, and AI to deliver its platform as a cloud service. More than 450 insurers, from new ventures to the largest and most complex in the world, run on Guidewire.

Prior to joining Guidewire, Colby was Senior Vice President of Strategic Alliances & Virtustream Storage Cloud, and before that Vice President – Insurance for Capgemini. She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University – Tepper School of Business.

 

3. Barbara Cousins
Company: Flywire
Title: Chief Information Security Officer

As Chief Information Security Officer, Barbara Cousins leads Flywire’s security, risk, and privacy functions. She brings 25 years of experience in risk, security, and privacy as well as a general understanding of the legal and regulatory environments affecting information handling and controls across a broad array of industries (i.e., financial services, healthcare, education, technology, energy, life sciences, and agriculture).

Prior to her current role, Cousins was the Information Security Officer for Devonshire Investors (Fidelity), where she managed 22 companies based in the U.S. and internationally and was a trusted advisor to individual company’s board members, senior executives, and their clients on IT risk and security issues. She has hands-on experience in managing a number of crises, from the civil unrest in Tunisia to the Japan earthquake/tsunami/radioactive materials release in March 2011.

Before Fidelity, Cousins was Director of IT Risk and Security for KPMG US and International. She had global responsibility for building and implementing security, privacy, and risk programs covering various IT Initiatives.

 

4. Margaret Franco
Company: Finastra
Title: Chief Marketing Officer

Chief Marketing Officer Margaret Franco is responsible for global end-to-end marketing and demand generation to support Finastra’s financial services platform and core software growth. Part of the Office of the CEO, she also leads the company’s sales academy.

Franco has deep marketing and product management expertise, excelling at driving adoption and growth in the technology industry. In particular, she is passionate about demystifying complex technology solutions for customers and businesses to help them transform. Starting her career at Compaq and HP in Houston, Texas, she held multiple global leadership roles supporting both consumer and commercial technology segments.

Franco joined Dell Technologies in 2005, spanning various executive roles in North America, Europe, and Asia in the commercial and enterprise product group organizations. She also led several global marketing functions, including Vice President of Integrated Marketing Communications, where she was responsible for digital, marketing communications, agency relationships, and brand positioning for Advanced Micro Devices. Returning to Dell Technologies as SVP of Marketing, Franco has led field marketing teams around the world in Asia Pacific, Japan, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. She has an MBA in marketing from the University of Houston and a Bachelor of Science in liberal arts from Southern Methodist University.

 

5. Leslie Gillin
Company: Pagaya
Title: Chief Growth Officer

Leslie Gillin is Pagaya’s Chief Growth Officer, overseeing the company’s global growth strategy, business development, partnerships, marketing, and public relations. Gillin joined Pagaya in 2021 from JPMorgan Chase, where she served as Chief Marketing Officer of the firm. She also served as their President of CoBrand Cards and has held senior executive leadership positions at Bank of America, Citi, and MBNA, which included assignments in Canada and the U.K.

With over 30 years of experience, Gillin has extensive expertise in marketing and product and business development for financial institutions. She adamantly believes in Pagaya’s mission to reshape the lending marketplace by using sophisticated AI and data-driven analysis to bring more Americans into the mainstream economy.

Gillin was recognized as a Top 25 CMO to Watch by Business Insider in 2020, as a Top 50 Woman Leader by Women We Admire in 2022, and honored with a Women in Business Stevie Awards recognition for Woman of the Year in 2022. She serves on the board of Establishment Labs, a women’s biotech company, and has served on the board of Ad Council, MasterCard U.K. Forum, the Philadelphia International Council of the Arts, and the Delaware Bankers Association.

 

6. Milkah Wachiuri
Company: Cellulant
Title: Chief Growth Officer

Milkah Wachiuri is a passionate executor who thrives in transforming organizations, building departments from scratch, and improving systems and processes to drive business growth. She enjoys working on truly transforming teams and individuals to realize their potential fully. Wachiuri started her career at Deloitte as an auditor, then joined Cellulant in 2012 to build the group’s finance function, where she led the finance team and built out the finance department as CFO. In this role, she consolidated the group’s reporting framework and the Global and Country finance teams and oversaw the business through two critical growth rounds of fundraising: Series B and C. She transitioned roles from finance to lead operations in Nigeria as the COO.

Today, Wachiuri heads the Growth team – Strategy and People Teams – at Cellulant as the Chief Growth Officer, leading the team that drives organic and inorganic growth for the business. Her work entails finding opportunities that drive operational excellence, building on their strategy and continued funding for the business.

Wachiui places great value on mentorship for herself and for others and regularly gives her time to mentor and share experiences with other professionals who are passionate about their career goals and individual growth. She loves and values working closely with founders, CEOs, and other executives to co-develop business and revenue models; prepare, review, and make strategic choices; and build organizations. Wachiuri holds a Global Executive MBA from IESE Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce in finance from the University of Nairobi.

 

7. Sara Xi
Company: Prime Trust
Title: Chief Product Officer

Sara Xi is the Chief Product Officer at Prime Trust, where she is responsible for product strategy, roadmap, and product development from ideation to launch. Under her leadership, Prime Trust now has a multidisciplinary product team consisting of UIUX, product management, product marketing, technical writing, and QA. Her team collaborates with engineering, ops, sales, marketing, and compliance closely to create disruptive products at scale for Prime Trust customers globally.

Xi is a product leader with more than two decades of experience at global financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Ernst & Young, as well as fintech startups in B2B payments and cryptocurrency. With her knowledge of fintech SaaS products and passion for innovation, Xi applies her technological know-how and drive to succeed daily.

 

8. Deana Rich
Company: Infinicept
Title: Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer

Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Infinicept Deana Rich is an accomplished thought leader within the payments acquiring industry, highly respected for her payments risk management and legal and regulatory compliance expertise. She founded Rich Consulting in 2004 to help clients understand risk tolerances, recognize vulnerabilities, initiate effective procedures to manage exposures, and implement the right risk policies, processes, and systems.

In 2014, she extended her consulting experience and industry knowledge into co-founding Infinicept, which enables companies to get payments going their way. Rich is a founding member and former president of Merchant Acquirers’ Committee (MAC) and current Chair of the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) Payment Facilitator Committee. She is also a member of Chief, a network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders.

 

9. Tanya Green
Company: Till Payments
Title: Chief Customer Officer

Tanya Green is at the heart of Till Payments’ vision to reimagine payments. She leads the company’s CX initiatives across all customer touch points and is focused on supporting the growth of the business through communicating the vision to audiences globally.

With extensive brand and marketing experience, having worked for leading agencies such as Leo Burnett, Clemenger BBDO, as well as Scentre Group (Westfield), Green is responsible for driving brand awareness and recognition of Till Payments while creating unrivaled customer payment experiences for merchants. She will lead clever, targeted, and distinctive campaigns as the company goes through this critical growth chapter.

 

10. Tingting Peng (tie)
Company: Moove
Title: Chief Capital, Strategy, and Impact Officer

Tingting Peng is Chief Capital, Strategy, and Impact Officer at Moove, a mobility fintech focused on revenue-based financing for gig workers globally. She is also an angel investor and advisor to startups across healthtech, HR tech, and fintech. As a former investment banker, hedge fund analyst, and private equity investor, Peng has extensive experience across private markets asset classes as well as fundraising and business development for companies and funds globally.

Peng is an avid yogi with a passion for building and scaling impactful businesses at the intersection of tech, investments, and wellbeing. A graduate of MIT with an MBA from London Business School, she was named to the Innovate Finance Women in Fintech Power List last year and is also an active member of the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle.

 

10. Elizabeth Jenkin (tie)
Company: Nimbla
Title: Chief Executive Officer

Elizabeth Jenkin is the Chief Executive Officer of Nimbla, a digital risk assessment and insurance company who is disrupting the world of trade credit. Founded in 2017 by Flemming Bengtsen, Nimbla provides SMEs, funders, and credit MGAs with unique APIs and embedded insurance that use algorithmic analysis to deliver real-time risk protection of B2B customer credit.

The fintech world is a natural step for Jenkin. She cut her teeth in underwriting and then transitioned to broking at Aon, where she remained for nearly two decades latterly as the chief broking officer for EMEA. There, she championed the use of technology to make better, faster business decisions to provide superior client outcomes. Her knowledge of insurance, trade credit, and structured finance is broad and deep which enables her to bring a richness of experience to the role that complements Nimbla's cutting edge tech.

Jenkin, a mother of three, is passionate about her family, people, and sport. Reflecting these passions, she currently sits on the board of the Women's Football Association and co-founded a not-for-profit network and mentoring community “Lift as you Climb.” Complementing her insurance knowledge, she sits on the U.K. boards of Fidelis and Gallagher.

 

11. Katherine Adkins
Company: Affirm
Title: Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer

Katherine Adkins has served as Affirm’s Chief Legal Officer since July 2021. Prior to her appointment as Chief Legal Officer, Chief Compliance Officer, and Corporate Secretary, Adkins served as Vice President, Legal and Bank Strategy and Deputy General Counsel, Legal Platforms from 2019 to July 2021.

Before joining Affirm, Adkins served as Group Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of Toyota Financial Services from 2009 to 2019. She has 25+ years of experience in the automotive, financial services, and financial technology industries. She earned her JD from Loyola University of Los Angeles and her Bachelor of Arts in international studies and economics from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

 

12. Ghizlaine Amrani (tie)
Company: QuantCube Technology
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer

Ghizlaine Amrani is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of QuantCube Technology. Having founded the business with Thanh-Long Huynh in 2013, she has contributed greatly to the company’s rapid growth since inception.

Responsible for executing QuantCube’s strategy, Amrani has created an innovative business model that allows QuantCube to leverage external partnerships across the financial services industry and optimize the firm’s scale-up process. Her business development skills in promoting QuantCube’s economic intelligence platform has helped secure contracts with prestigious global banks, U.S. investment banks, and hedge funds. Amrani has also played an instrumental role in successfully raising funds from top notch institutional investors, enabling QuantCube to accelerate its global growth and leverage the added value brought by strategic investors.

Amrani speaks many languages, including Italian, French, Spanish, English, Chinese, and Arabic. Her training in psychotherapy, together with her in-depth knowledge of AI and data analytics, enabled her to set up and grow a diverse and inclusive team of 80+ highly skilled people (covering 23 different nationalities, 18 different languages, and a data science team that is 40% female). Amrani holds a number of executive positions in fintech innovation initiatives. She is an Executive Committee Member and Founding Member of the Scale-up Club at Finance Innovation, and a Member of the Task Force for AI & Data at France Digital.

 

12. Denada Ramnishta (tie)
Company: Lendio
Title: Chief Growth Officer and General Manager

Denada Ramnishta is Chief Growth Officer and General Manager at Lendio, the leading small business financing marketplace. As a fintech executive, Ramnishta has led teams that drive revenue growth, acquisition of strategic partnerships, and corporate development initiatives. Additionally, she oversees the building and adoption of SaaS technology by financial institutions to support the democratization of capital. She applies a philosophy of a holistic, 360-degree, win-win-win model to portfolio management, lender, and partner strategy.

Harnessing “Grit, Grind, and Gratitude,” she is a key industry player trailblazing to reshape the lending tech space and drive sustainable revenue growth for Lendio. In preparation for Lendio’s participation in the Paycheck Protection Program, Ramnishta oversaw the sourcing and onboarding of more than 300 financial institutions and the funding of $10 billion in PPP loans. A mentor in the LendIt Fintech Women-in-Fintech Program, she is committed to supporting diversity in fintech and creating financing opportunities for underserved businesses. Before her role at Lendio, she acquired and managed strategic partnerships for American Express’s non-card lending division.

 

13. Anna Fisher
Company: Spiff Inc.
Title: Chief Marketing Officer

Anna Fisher serves as Chief Marketing Officer of Spiff Inc., which automates and optimizes commissions plans (so there is no need for Excel spreadsheets) and motivates commissioned reps. Their goal is to solve the headache of running commissions for the finance team, reduce friction between finance and sales, and increase sales performance. Fisher’s team’s responsibilities are two-fold. They are responsible for generating the majority of the pipeline, whether through digital marketing, demand generation, or their SDR organization. They also focus on the customer experience, with new product launches and making sure their internal team is aware of the incredible solutions they are bringing to market.

Prior to Spiff, Fisher held several leadership positions with Zoominfo, including Vice President of Marketing. Before that, she was Senior Client Account Manager and Client Service Supervisor for Brown Brothers Harriman. She earned a degree in communication & education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

 

14. Anuradha Muralidharan
Company: Expensify
Title: Chief Operating Officer

Anuradha “Anu” Muralidharan joined Expensify in 2015 and is the principal strategist for fraud prevention, audits, bank relations, and all other operational efforts for the company. Prior to becoming Chief Operating Officer, she was the driving force behind the creation of the Expensify Card, where she combined her vast knowledge of the world’s financial networks with her deep technical background to guide development.

Before leading Expensify’s operations, Muralidharan held Vice President positions at Citibank and Marqeta, various engineering roles at Oracle. She received her MBA from Cornell and her Bachelor of Engineering in electrical and electronics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani.

 

15. Luan Cox (tie)
Company: FinMkt
Title: Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Luan Cox is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of FinMkt, a provider of embedded SaaS digital lending technology and a multi-lender point of sale financing platform that has processed billions in loan application volume since launching in 2016. Prior to FinMkt, Cox served as the General Manager and Vice President of Interactive Data Managed Solutions – Americas, Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing for Stockpoint, and Executive Director of Partner Solutions for Quote.com. She is an alumna and advisor to the Springboard Accelerator program, which comprises the world’s leading women-led media and technology companies, and is a Techstars mentor for its fintech accelerator.

In 2019, Cox was named to NYC FinTech Women’s Inspiring Fintech Females list in recognition of her outstanding leadership and support for the community of women in financial technology. She was named as one of the Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology of 2020 and Top 50 Financial Technology CEOs of 2022 by the Financial Technology Report. In 2021, she was on the Top 100 Women in Fintech list by Fintech Magazine. Since launch, FinMkt has experienced exponential growth and earned the trust of major lenders, home improvement companies, and healthcare providers.

 

15. Sara Depret (tie)
Company: InvestSuite
Title: Chief Operating Officer

Sara Depret started her career at an internet scale-up, and from that moment on she has enjoyed being in the driver’s seat, leading companies through corporate growth and/or large transformations. She is passionate about organizational development and is a strong believer in combining product and market insights with positive people dynamics.

In 2018, Depret joined InvestSuite as Chief Operating Officer. InvestSuite is a European fintech company providing automated investment solutions to help financial institutions retain their clients by addressing their rapidly-evolving digital needs and defending their market positions against nimble B2C fintech disruptors. Its team of seasoned experts operate across design, technology, and finance.

Prior to joining InvestSuite, Depret served as Principal at EFESO Consulting. Before that, she held several leadership roles with KBC Bank & Verzekering, including General Manager of Strategy and LEAN Culture Transformation. She also spent two years as Business Process Manager for Telindus. She holds a Master of Laws from the University of Leuven.

 

16. Amanda Abrams
Company: Cohen Circle
Title: Chief Executive Officer

Amanda Abrams is the Chief Executive Officer of Cohen Circle, an investment firm founded by financial services pioneers Betsy Cohen and her son Daniel Cohen. Since 2015, the firm has provided transformative capital to late stage fintech growth companies, and today makes investments across the capital structure in the fintech, technology, and impact spaces, with $5+ billion in capital raised.

Previously, Abrams was the General Counsel of CardConnect Corp., an innovative payment processing and technology solutions provider; a former Partner of the corporate transactions group at Ledgewood Law Firm; and a former Attorney at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, where she advised public and private companies in capital markets transactions, M&A, and general corporate matters. Abrams has participated as a principal and/or counsel in transactions reflecting in the issuance of billions of dollars of debt and equity securities, in M&A transactions spanning various industries, and has served as a key business and legal advisor to companies across all stages of their life cycles. She holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in Finance with honors from Penn State Schreyer Honors College.

 

17. Staci Tubbs (tie)
Company: Tricolor
Title: Chief People Officer

Staci Tubbs brings a diverse set of leadership experiences to Tricolor, enabling her to lead the company’s human capital strategy with tremendous strategic insight as Chief People Officer. Leveraging her experience in several senior executive roles, including a successful tenure as CEO of a call center business, Tubbs managed her own consultancy practice for five years, serving CEOs and leadership teams across different industries and company sizes with executive coaching and leadership skill development.

A gifted communicator with tremendous entrepreneurial energy, Tubbs understands the challenges facing operating roles across the organization and excels in the application of crucial soft skills in this capacity: team building, creative problem solving, and emotional intelligence in evolving Tricolor’s leadership team. She embraces the challenge of harnessing these skills to build a mission-driven culture in a high growth environment. Tubbs holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry from Cornell University.

 

17. Bobbie Collies (tie)
Company: Coterie Insurance
Title: Vice President of Distribution

Bobbie Collies is an insurance junkie who comes from an extensive background in commercial underwriting and P&C insurance carrier leadership. She is Vice President of Distribution at Coterie Insurance and a passionate servant leader who loves to help drive strategy and execution. Collies has successfully led many project teams in underwriting, distribution, technology, and user experiences for organizations.

She is a champion for innovation, customer experience, and a change agent. Some might describe her as an “intrapreneur,” always looking for ways to improve the organizations she works with by bringing new ideas to the table, and more importantly, seeing those ideas come to life.

 

18. Lara Mataac
Company: OneSpan
Title: General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer

Lara Mataac was named General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer by OneSpan in June 2022. It was announced that Mataac would lead the company’s legal team and oversee corporate governance and compliance. With nearly two decades of legal, compliance, corporate governance, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) experience focused on public and private cloud-based technology companies, Mataac will play a key role in OneSpan’s strategic transformation.

Most recently, Mataac served as General Counsel at Constant Contact, where she led the legal and compliance team during a period of transformation after the company’s spinout from Endurance International Group (EIG). Prior to Constant Contact, Mataac spent eight years at EIG, most recently as Deputy General Counsel. At EIG, she was the legal lead for the company’s IPO, was responsible for public company compliance, corporate governance, M&A, and employment matters, and was instrumental in EIG’s take-private transaction. Before EIG, she was Corporate Legal Director at Bottomline Technologies. Earlier in her career, Mataac represented public and private companies in ongoing securities law matters, corporate governance, M&A, and capital markets transactions at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP. Mataac holds a JD from Stanford Law School and a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College.

 

19. Katy Forte Seybold (tie)
Company: iBusiness Funding
Title: Chief of Staff and Head of Strategy

As Chief of Staff and Head of Strategy for Knight Capital Funding/iBusiness Funding, Katy Forte Seybold is a self-described jack-of-all-trades. She leads the strategic development for each of the company’s lines of business, and in addition directs several special initiatives and projects. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Florida State University, and her MBA with Finance Certification from the University of Florida Hough Graduate School of Business. Prior to her current role, she spent more than seven years at ExxonMobil, rising in the ranks from a financial analyst in the U.S. to a financial accounting and reporting manager overseas.

These roles took her to Brussels, heading up European Asset-Backed Trading Strategy, and to Budapest where she ran several different financial reporting sections. After earning her undergraduate degree, Forte Seybold started her career at Marriott International in the training program as Assistant Director of Finance. She quickly became Senior Assistant Director of Finance, managing daily operations and an accounting staff.

 

19. Anna Lynch (tie)
Company: Flow Traders
Title: Managing Director

Anna Lynch is the Managing Director in the U.K. for Flow Traders, Europe’s leading global technology-enabled liquidity provider specializing in Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) with growth in Digital Assets, FX, and Commodities. Flow Traders’ mission is to create an investment environment that is more transparent, efficient, and lower-cost for end investors.

Lynch is an experienced finance leader and brings over 11 years of international experience in the financial services industry. Since joining in 2018, she has been known for building bridges across the firm geographically and cross-functionally, as she drives collaboration across teams in Finance, Compliance, Risk and Mid-Office, HR, and Trading. She is active in the Women in ETFs organization and acts as a mentor to other women in the firm.

Prior to her time at Flow Traders, Lynch worked in transaction advisory services at PwC. She has a Masters in Accounting from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in history and French from Vanderbilt University.

 

20. Giovana Fiorin
Company: Mercado Bitcoin
Title: Partner and Director of Operations

Giovana Fiorin is a Partner and Director of Operations at Mercado Bitcoin, Latin America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and Brazil's first crypto unicorn, after raising $200 million from Softbank in 2021. Mercado Bitcoin is the crown jewel of 2TM Group, a Brazilian holding company managing a range of digital asset services and solutions companies, creating the most complete crypto ecosystem in Latam.

Fiorin joined the company in 2020 after receiving her MBA from the European SDA Bocconi School of Management. She has helped to build and now leads Mercado Bitcoin's team in day-to-day operations and participates actively in the strategic direction and culture of the business. Before joining the fintech revolution, Fiorin served a decade in the traditional financial services industry, having worked for companies such as the Brazilian Stock Exchange and UBS Investment Bank. She also volunteers as a mentor to women colleagues, supporting them in the workplace with the guidance and network they need to navigate their complex career paths.

 

21. Genevieve Hennessy-Barrett
Company: 4G Capital
Title: Co-Founder, Chief of Staff, and Director of Impact

Genevieve Hennessy-Barrett is Co-Founder, Chief of Staff, and Director Impact of 4G Capital, a fintech company that delivers working capital loans and business training to micro and small enterprises in Kenya and Uganda. 4G Capital consistently achieves high collection rates without collateral or refinancing; this is attributed to the blend of finance and training and a unique "touch-tech" approach. The company has positively impacted more than 1.5 million people across East Africa and has been a B Corporation since 2018. 4G Capital’s success is directly linked to the success of its clients and the well-being of its 1,000+ staff members. Hennessy-Barrett is responsible for delivering on 4G Capital's mission to grow businesses with capital and knowledge, contributing to a regenerative economy and helping to bridge the $331 billion finance gap in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Hennessy-Barrett’s first career was in nursing. She held a variety of senior nursing roles in the United Kingdom and India. She also founded a medical training organization in East Africa and spent 5 years as the United Nations hostile environment medical training specialist in Somalia. She attributes her people-focused and detail-oriented approach to her previous experience working with teams in high-pressure life-and-death situations.

 

22. Emily Louise Nelson
Company: Aeropay
Title: Director of Marketing

Emily Louise Nelson is the Director of Marketing at Aeropay, a financial services technology platform. In this role, Nelson is responsible for driving Aeropay’s revenue generation and success by increasing the number of leads through the creation, implementation, and management of sales marketing programs. She directs the creation of compelling marketing campaigns to capture leads across multiple audiences.

Prior to Aeropay, during her time at the cannabis ecommerce platform Blackbird, Nelson developed and implemented the B2B marketing channel, driving demand generation efforts and revenue. As an emerging leader, she spearheaded product improvement initiatives ahead of industry competition. In her role at POS Portal, a Scansource company, she was instrumental in developing and delivering partner sales and marketing programs jointly developed with partner counterparts. She participated in the creation and delivery of scalable, partner-specific value propositions in order to build commitment and traction between POS Portal and partners. Her article, “Why Cannabis Companies Need a Digital Presence,” was published in MG Retailer, establishing her as a trusted voice in the cannabis technology industry.

 

23. Kena Pitts (tie)
Company: Sila
Title: Head of Compliance

Head of Compliance for Sila (the leading money API for fintech) Kena Pitts is versatile and highly knowledgeable, offering skills in compliance and risk management, strategic planning, and continuous process improvement. Her teams have delivered elegant solutions to complex operational challenges over the course of 15 years, and she enjoys partnering with C-level executives to build coalitions around innovative change programs.

Pitts draws on extensive experience in organizational change management, strategic communications, regulatory compliance, BSA/AML, and process improvement to design best-in-class internal controls and change programs. Her projects have earned a reputation for quality and compliance. She was selected as one of the Birmingham Business Journal’s 2021 Top 40 Under 40 and was Keynote Speaker for the European Compliance and Ethics Conference in October 2021 on ESG and the Future of Sustainability. Pitts holds a Master of Science in organizational leadership and a Bachelor of Arts in communication and media studies, both from Southern New Hampshire University

 

23. Marie Yatco (tie)
Company: Procurify
Title: Senior Director, Customer Experience

Marie Yatco is the Senior Director of Customer Experience for Procurify, whose spend management software helps organizations control spending. Their improved procurement and purchasing workflows track purchases, set-up fast digital approvals, and manage all the steps of the procure-to-pay process. The company’s valuable purchasing insights provide visibility into spend analytics and vendor data so companies can make strategic decisions that support business growth. Unlike older clunky solutions or basic office tools like Excel, Procurify’s product is designed to be simple for everyone to use so control can be gained over spending without slowing anyone down.

Yatco is a strong leader in customer success who ensures that her team delivers and showcases the maximum value of Procurify’s technology to clients and their end users. Prior to her current position, Yatco was Head of Customer Success for MediaValet Inc., the world's first 100% cloud-based digital asset management system (DAMS). Before that, she was Director of Customer Success for Vision Critical. Yatco holds a Marketing Management Certificate in public relations from British Columbia Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in English literature and political science from The University of British Columbia.

 

24. Alyssa Shane
Company: Verikai
Title: Senior Director of Operations

With nearly 25 years of experience, the vast majority as an operations leader, Senior Director of Operations Alyssa Shane brings to Verikai her talent for details, implementation, communication, and leadership to ensure Verikai’s success from an operations point of view.

Shane’s ability to put others at ease allows her to build the internal and external relationships needed to successfully oversee human resources, benefits, accounting, risk management, corporate requirements, and more, while also being a core contributor to Verikai’s unique and special culture. She is determined to always go above and beyond and leads with empathy — encouraging others to strive for their very best too.

Shane co-owned an event and marketing production company for more than two years when Verikai recruited her to lead company operations. Prior to being the managing partner of her company, she spent nearly 15 years at a sports and entertainment production company, producing more than 100 live made-for-network television shows that aired on NBC and ABC. Shane holds a Bachelor of Arts from Indiana University and a master’s degree from The George Washington University.

 

25. Katie Weckler
Company: DoubleCheck Solutions
Title: Vice President, Revenues

Katie Weckler, CFP, is the head of Revenue for DoubleCheck Solutions, a financial technology start-up focused on solving one of the largest banking conundrums of our time: outdated overdraft and non-sufficient fund practices that place unnecessary burdens on customers, small businesses, and financial institutions. DoubleCheck’s innovative technology reduces friction between consumers and their financial institutions by alerting them when they have negative balances in their checking accounts and providing them with more payment options—they can determine what gets paid, or how transactions get reprioritized.

Weckler is an accomplished revenue leader with extensive experience in go-to-market strategy, product marketing fit, obtaining beta/early adopter clients and building strategic sales/relationship management teams to maximize revenue for the firm. Her early career began at Lincoln Financial, Comerica Bank, and Fidelity Investments, where her passion for mission driven companies led her into the startup world to make an impact. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Oakland University.