The Financial Technology Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology of Europe for 2023. Their impact on their organizations and the industry as a whole is undeniable. They represent key executive roles as well as specialized functions from CEO and COO to CTO and CMO as well as other prominent roles. As finance continues its rapid evolution to more efficient digital experiences, these women leaders are pushing the boundaries across global payments, money management, compliance, foreign exchange, big data management, and a number of other areas.
Trudy Ross serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Quantile, which has eliminated trillions of dollars of gross notional through interest rate compression and billions of dollars in initial margin through counterparty risk optimization. As the CEO of IG Group, June Felix has achieved significant geographic and product diversification and growth in key markets like Japan and growth via strategic acquisitions. Meanwhile, Lynda Strutton, COO of Tribe Payments, ensures the company delivers a seamless experience to its customers, bringing over a decade’s worth of experience in the payments sector across Europe and the Middle East.
The accomplished women being recognized this year were selected for their proven ability to lead others, their deep domain expertise, and their impact on the overall fintech sector. They have made invaluable contributions to the fintech landscape in Europe and around the world. Please join us in celebrating the achievements of this year’s Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology of Europe for 2023.
1. Trudy Ross
Company: Quantile
Title: Chief Operating Officer
Trudy Ross is the Chief Operating Officer at Quantile, which delivers market-leading post-trade optimisation services to the largest financial institutions globally. By reducing risk, capital, and notional requirements, Quantile increases market liquidity and accelerates a safer financial system that’s better for all. In 2016, Ross was the third employee to join Quantile and has been integral to the company’s substantial growth. The company is widely recognised as a market leader in its field and has over 80 employees who are based in offices in London, New York, and Amsterdam—with Tokyo coming soon. Quantile was acquired by the London Stock Exchange Group plc in December 2022 and sits within the Post Trade division.
Prior to her time at Quantile, Ross held senior positions at Deutsche Bank, including Global COO of Clearing Sales and Global Business Manager for Rates Trading. She also served on the executive committee of the OTCDeriv board for 10 years. A strong advocate for women in fintech, Ross encourages everyone to prioritise the company and its culture ahead of roles. Ross holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Auckland.
2. June Felix
Company: IG Group
Title: Chief Executive Officer
June Felix is the global CEO of IG Group. Since her appointment in 2018, she has been instrumental in the Company’s evolution as a leading global fintech. Under her leadership, the Group has achieved significant geographic and product diversification and growth in key markets like Japan and growth via strategic acquisitions such as tastytrade, a leading, US-based trading ecosystem.
Prior to her current role, she served as a non-executive director of the Company from 2015. She brings nearly three decades’ experience in both the finance and digital technology sectors, having held senior management roles in New York, London, and Hong Kong. Previous roles include her position as President of Verifone Europe, various executive management positions at a number of large multi-national businesses including IBM’s Global Head of Banking and Financial Markets and senior roles at Citibank and Chase Bank.
Currently, Ms. Felix also holds Non-Executive Board Director roles at RELX PLC and The London Technology Club. A recognised innovator and passionate believer in the power of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), she is a recipient of the Edison Award – an award honouring excellence in technological innovation – and she was elected to the Innovators Hall of Fame by Banking Technology News. In 2021, Innovate Finance named Ms. Felix to its annual Women in Fintech Powerlist and she was also named as the Most Influential Woman in Payments by PaymentSource and Source media in 2016. In 2022, she was named one of the top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology in Europe by the Financial Technology Report. She is a founder of the Women’s European Network and elected to the Committee of 200 – an invitation only membership organisation of the world’s most successful female entrepreneurs and corporate leaders.
Ms. Felix graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a summa cum laude (first class honours) degree in Chemical Engineering and Pre-Med.
3. Lynda Strutton
Company: Tribe Payments
Title: Chief Operating Officer
Lynda Strutton oversees all commercial, marketing, operational and product output for Tribe, a fintech dedicated to pioneering payments innovations that supports its clients as they introduce new ways to bank, shop, pay, and manage money. At a high level, Tribe is an acquirer and issuer processor that is globally certified with multiple card schemes; but its product portfolio includes impressive Digital Banking, Open Banking, Risk Monitor, 3D Secure and Payment Gateway solutions.
Lynda Strutton joined Tribe Payments as VP of Customer Success in early 2022 – before moving into her current Chief Operating Officer role, in which she ensures that Tribe delivers a seamless experience to its customers. She has over a decade’s worth of experience in the payments sector across Europe and the Middle East, having previously held senior roles at Barclaycard, Elavon and Network International.
A strong advocate for working mothers, Strutton notably earned her promotion at Tribe while pregnant with her fourth child.
4. Camila Witt
Company: Inpay
Title: Chief Risk and Compliance Officer
Camila Witt has in-depth knowledge in Compliance, Financial Crime, especially AML/CTF, Enterprise Risk Management, and Regulatory Governance in the financial sector. She holds two Ph.Ds in Law, and vast experience in the financial sector, having worked in different positions at MobilePay, FCA Capital, Danske Bank, and currently as the Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at Inpay – the fastest growing company in Denmark.
Camila’s achievements range from effectively designing and implementing Enterprise Risk Management and Financial Crime prevention frameworks, to successfully obtaining licenses before the regulatory bodies of Denmark and Finland. She is a front-runner professional whose strengths go beyond knowledge, including multicultural understanding and talent to build rapport with a diverse work team.
At Inpay, Camila’s mission is to ensure that Risk Management is a part of the business, ensuring value-creation and value-protection in all their endeavors. Furthermore, she strives to show the importance of diversity, and to foster an inclusive and collaborative leadership culture.
5. Irina Chuchkina
Company: Thunes
Title: CMO
Irina is an accomplished Fintech marketing leader with over 17 years of experience building world-class brands at the intersection of payments and technology, across Europe and Asia. She currently leads Marketing at Thunes, a global Fintech building modern payment infrastructure connecting developed and emerging markets.
Previously, Irina helped to grow another payment unicorn, Rapyd, leading its Go-to-Market strategy in the APAC region, and then crafting Rapyd's public presence as Head of Brand, Comms and Social media.She was also part of Southeast Asia super-app giant, Grab, where she helped to launch GrabPay, Grab’s mobile wallet, and GrabRewards, its loyalty platform. She spent several years with Visa, where she was part of Visa's Innovation Centre team and led its Marketing efforts across APAC.
Irina is passionate about Super-Apps, Embedded Finance, Alternative Payment methods, Payment infrastructure and the Future of Payments. She has an MBA from INSEAD and serves as an Executive Committee Member with the Singapore Fintech Association where she led the launch of SG Fintech Club.
6. Nicole Aviv
Company: Shield
Title: Head of Product
Nicole Aviv is the Head of Product at Shield, a leading provider of end-to-end compliance solutions for financial services and highly regulated industries. Shield is revolutionizing compliance for firms by leveraging AI technology to uncover critical insights that were previously invisible, enabling compliance teams to refocus on meaningful work. Over the last 5 years, Nicole has been instrumental as the Head of Product in shaping Shield's product design, strategy, and innovation. Her contributions have played a pivotal role in transforming Shield from a small start-up to a thriving company with backing from large financial institutions and 150 employees worldwide.
Nicole is a seasoned product leader with over 15 years of experience in the technology sector, having worked across a variety of industries such as healthcare, ITSM, and sales enablement. Prior to Shield, Nicole served as the Director of Professional Services at SysAid, where she was responsible for leading the architecture and implementation of the IT service management platform for enterprise firms. Nicole holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University and a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from the University of Technology Sydney.
7. Gina Wee
Company: CJC Ltd
Title: Chief Information Officer
Gina Wee is the Chief Information Officer of CJC Ltd, a leading global managed services company focused on the capital markets. She oversees a global (London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and New York) and diverse team and is responsible for functions such as IT and market data platform operations, infosec, and service delivery.
Gina started her career in software engineering and has worked in Asia and America, leading teams, and managing programs in the financial and IT industries. A self-starter, she is a passionate advocate of continuous learning and leads by example with her team.
She led global transformation programs for the technical managed services division as well as a company-wide IT and security change during the pandemic period to enable a safe work-from-home culture.
She is known within the company for her people-centric leadership style and is a strong advocate for women in the field of technology. She was involved in activities that bring together women in the tech field and promoted inclusivity both in her previous company as well as in CJC.
Her significant contributions to the CJC’s operations have also helped the company win several industry awards, notably being named the Best Specialist Market Data Consultancy at the TradingTech Insight Awards for four years running.
8. Laura Lin
Company: Capital.com
Title: CEO Australia & RM
Laura Lin is the CEO Australia & RM of Capital.com. She first joined the company in 2022 as CEO APAC. Capital.com is on a mission to make the world of finance more accessible, engaging and useful. With a focus on simplicity, ease of use, speed and power – it aims to develop the best trading service on the market.
Previously, Laura was an acting group CEO at Mitrade Group PTE Ltd and before that a compliance manager Australia, NZ & China at IG. Earlier in her career she worked with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ as an AML assistant manager. Laura earned a Master’s degree from Melbourne Business School and an undergraduate degree from Sun Yat-sen University.
9. Sue Whittington
Company: Smart Pension
Title: Chief Operating Officer, Smart UK
Sue Whittington is the Chief Operating Officer, Smart UK of Smart. Smart’s mission is to transform retirement, savings and financial wellbeing, across all generations, around the world. The company helps manage the rapid changes happening in the UK pension industry and across the globe. It has evolved to become one of the largest workplace pension providers in the UK, with backing from global financial giants Legal & General Investment Management and J.P. Morgan.
Sue has 20 years of experience. Before joining Smart, she was a head of distribution services at Zurich Insurance Company Ltd and before that a customer service manager at Zurich Financial Services.
10. Jane Loginova
Company: Radar Payments
Title: Co-Founder and CEO
Jane co-founded Radar Payments, the new paytech launched by BPC group. At Radar Payments, she focuses on creating value for fintechs, acquirers, and issuers that need to go to market faster or respond to critical market needs. She wears multiple hats as she is also Senior Vice-President, Chief Commercial Officer at BPC, globally responsible for strategy, marketing and sales. Prior to BPC, Jane worked with Goldman Sachs as an executive director. She studied Management at the London School of Economics and is based in London.
11. Clare Gambardella
Company: Zopa
Title: Chief Customer Officer
Clare has been the Chief Customer Officer at Zopa since 2018. Previously, she held a number of roles at Virgin Active, including Chief Marketing Officer (Group CMO), European Marketing Director, and Group Head of Strategic Projects.
Earlier in her career, she was a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group. Clare began her caree as an Assistant Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble, where she worked on Prestige Products and FMCG Products for the UK and Ireland.
12. Kate Bullman
Company: Codat
Title: VP, Global Head of Sales
Kate Bullman iis the VP, Global Head of Sales at Codat, the universal API for small business data. It provides real-time connectivity to enable software providers and financial institutions to build integrated products for small business customers. Its clients range from lenders to corporate card providers and business forecasting tools and use cases include automatic reconciliation, business dashboarding, and loan decisioning.
Kate got her start as a research manager at Penna Consulting. From there, she went on to The Royal Bank of Scotland, before eventually rising to Senior Director of UK&I financial services practice lead at FICO, her most recent position prior to joining Codat.
13. Madalena Tomé
Company: SIBS
Title: Chief Executive Officer
Madalena Cascais Tomé joined SIBS as CEO in 2015. Previously, she was Director of Commercial Operations at Portugal Telecom, as well as Director for Remote Channels and Online and New Channels for SMEs. Prior to Portugal Telecom, she was a project manager at McKinsey & Company covering banking, insurance, telecoms, and distribution. She was also a renowned consultant for retail banking and strategic marketing.
Earlier in her career, she joined the business consulting unit at Arthur Andersen/Deloitte. She graduated in applied mathematics at ISEG and has a postgrad degree in market research and CRM from Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
14. Emma Streatfield
Company: CloudPay
Title: Chief Revenue Officer
Emma leads the Sales and Alliances function at CloudPay, which is focused on building and growing commercial relationships with customers and partners. She joined the company with over 20 years of experience including leadership roles in sales and product management. Her most recent roles have been with world class financial services organizations - American Express and Visa.
15. Katrin Puusepp
Company: Yolo Group
Title: COO
Katrin Puusep began her professional career 14 years ago. Today, she is the COO of Yolo Group. Yolo Group is building the future of gaming, fintech, blockchain and more across products and services which put the customer at the center of the universe. The Group has built a team of more than 600 innovators, based in global offices in six countries, working on a range of award-winning and market-leading brands.
Puusep first got her start in 2009 as head of private consumer sales at Elion Enterprises Ltd. From there, she went on to ERGO Insurance SE, before eventually rising to head of business operations at Dental Design OÜ, her most recent position prior to joining Yolo Group.
16. Louise Chan
Company: Ebury
Title: Chief Operating Officer
In November 2021, Chan was appointed Chief Operating Officer at Ebury, a leading provider of foreign exchange and cross-border payments services. Previously, In 2016, Chan left Barclays to join HSBC as Head of Innovation Delivery and Capability Development for Global Liquidity and Cash Management. During her time at HSBC, she led a team of over 200 people responsible for developing and launching new products and services.
Louise Chan has worked in the financial services industry for over 25 years. She started her career at HBOS as a Programme Manager in 1996. She then spent two years as a Financial Services Consultant at Claritas and Acxiom. In 2007, she joined Goldfish as Marketing Operations Manager. Chan joined Barclaycard in 2008 as Head of Commercial Management for Digital Consumer Payments. In 2013, she was promoted to Director of Pingit International, and oversaw the rollout of the mobile payments service in over 30 countries.
17. Kim Ohlrogge
Company: Global Processing Services
Title: Chief Product Officer
Kim is GPS’ Chief Product Officer, focused on ensuring the product set is robust and provides significant value to the customers. She has spent more than 20 years in the payments and technology space and has gained extensive leadership experience across diverse product roles and technology areas with companies ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 100 both in Europe and the US. Prior to GPS Kim held leadership roles at Nexi/Nets, TSYS, and Digital River.
18. Helen Wilson
Company: Atom Bank
Title: Chief Operating Officer
Helen Wilson is the current Chief Operating Officer at Atom bank. Prior to her current role, Wilson served as the head of delivery for specialist complaint handling at a top 4 UK bank. Previously, she was the head of delivery for PPI operations on an interim/consultancy basis. Helen began her career in 2006 as an operational strategist at Northern Rock before moving on to other roles. She completed a BA Honours in Geography at Newcastle University and is certified by the Chartered Institute of Bankers.
19. Bianca Austin
Company: Signicat
Title: Chief People Officer
Bianca Austin is the Chief People Officer of Signicat, a pioneering, pan-European digital identity company with an unrivaled track record in the world’s most advanced digital identity markets. Its digital identity platform incorporates the most extensive suite of identity verification and authentication systems in the world, all accessible through a single integration point. The platform supports the full identity journey, from recognition and on-boarding, through login and consent, to making business agreements which stand the test of time.
Austin got her start as a management consultant in talent and organizational performance at Accenture. From there, she went on to Scandic Hotels, before eventually rising to talent manager at Elite Hotels of Sweden AB, her most recent position prior to joining Signicat. Austin graduated from Handelshögskolan vid Göteborgs Universitet with a Master’s degree in business economics.
20. Tess Nicholson
Company: PensionBee
Title: Chief Operating Officer
Tess Nicholson is the Chief Operating Officer of PensionBee, which she joined in 2015. She is responsible for a range of operational activities across the business, including customer success, compliance and banking operations. Tess was previously Operations Manager and UK Commercial Manager at GO Markets UK Trading Limited (formerly Vantage FX UK Trading Limited). She holds a degree from Birmingham City University and is currently studying for a Masters at Birkbeck, University of London.
21. Katarina Richter-Weiss
Company: PXP Financial
Title: Chief Operating Officer
Katarina Richter-Weiss is the Chief Operating Officer of PXP Financial, a leading payment provider supported by 200 employees from 25 nationalities working across 5 office locations: UK, Austria, Bulgaria, India, and the US. As a leading payment provider, PXP Financial sets standards: operational excellence, best-in-class service and a dedicated client care team to help businesses thrive.
Previously, Katarina was Director of Customer Operations at Entain and before that Director Operations and Merchant Risk Management at DIMOCO Payment Services. Earlier in her career she worked with Global Equity Partners.
22. Natalie Levine
Company: Wealth Dynamix
Title: Chief Operating Officer
As Chief Operating Officer at Wealth Dynamix, Natalie is responsible for the strategic direction and management of operations across the company. She is an investment management technology expert with more than 25 years’ experience delivering large-scale technology projects.
Prior to joining Wealth Dynamix, Natalie was Head of Technology at Bridgepoint Group plc a leading quoted private assets growth investor. She joined Bridgepoint following an 18-year tenure at Quilter Cheviot where she was Head of Technology, responsible for the management of the company’s technology operations and the implementation of new IT systems and policies.
23. Lucy Reynolds
Company: 21shares
Title: Chief Operating Officer
Lucy Reynolds is the Chief Operating Officer of 21shares, which makes investing in digital assets as easy as buying shares using a conventional broker or bank. Headquartered in Zurich, the company has launched several exchange-traded products such as HODL and Bitcoin ETP over the past year.
Lucy has 20 years of experience. She began her career in 2003. Before joining 21shares, she was Head of Product Management at WisdomTree UK Limited and before that, was Executive Director and Head of Product Development at ETF Securities. Earlier in her career she worked with Dechert LLP as an associate.
24. Ambre Soubiran
Company: Kaiko
Title: CEO
Ambre is the CEO of Kaiko, an enterprise-grade market data provider in the blockchain-based digital assets industry. Prior to joining the company, she spent a decade with HSBC’s Global Markets & Equity Capital Markets division in London and Paris where she structured equity derivatives and equity-based financing solutions. Ambre has a passion for world-changing technology and has been interested and invested in digital assets since 2012. She earned her MS in Applied Mathematics from the Université Paris Dauphine.
25. Irene Skrynova
Company: Unlimint
Title: Chief Customer Officer
Irene Skrynova is Chief Customer Officer at Unlimint. She started her career in finance by working on projects developing white label trading platforms and cryptocurrencies. Her current role is to oversee all client interactions. Unlimint offers a range of payment solutions for customers to be able to accept payments from anywhere in the world. She boasts diverse international experience from PR and marketing roles to crypto and business development, which enables her to quickly understand platforms as well as navigate the startup landscape.
