“One of the most important things that women can do is support other women” with Daniela Espinosa and Tyler Gallagher

I believe that one of the most important things that women can do is support other women. I believe that the previous generation had to fight hard and collaboration among women didn’t exist. Companies should be more conscious of this problem as well, and try to make an effort to create more of a balance. Companies need to be more strategic, as a majority of consumers are women, and they need to understand their customers. What individuals and companies do will impact society, and therefore governments should be more conscious of the issue as well and make a real effort to change it.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Daniela Espinosa, the COO of Kushki, a leading payment platform in Latin America.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to the Banking/Finance field?

Thank you, I appreciate the opportunity to do this interview. I have always been passionate about numbers, and during school, I always knew I’d work at a bank. I started my career at Citigroup, where I learned about the business extensively over my 12 years there. My last position at Citigroup was Risk Manager and Vice President for Ecuador, where I lead all risk decision-making for Ecuador, including the strategic planning of the franchise each year. My next position was CFO and Chief Strategic Officer for a private, family-owned corporation. A position in technology was my next step. I met the two founders of Kushki, and we started the company to revolutionize Latin America.

Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that happened to you in your career so far?

In my last position, I spoke and gave feedback to the Board of Directors early on when I started. While I was incredibly nervous to make suggestions, I’m thrilled that I did. It was a great learning opportunity, I was asked to make a detailed recommendation at the next meeting. I then started to manage Strategic Planning for the company, including mergers, acquisitions, efficiencies, creation of corporate structures such as CFO, and more.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

I co-founded Kushki and our vision is to digitize payments in Latin America. This technology is able to reach the poorest populations, to bank the unbanked, and to develop new products to solve solve some of the biggest challenges in the region. Kushki allows companies to reduce costs, increase sales, develop new products, and innovate. We collaborate with the environment and the government to reduce traffic (as most of the public services will be paid online), reduce corruption, and much more.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We are a group of dedicated professionals with different backgrounds around the world. We are innovative and passionate, which allows us to create the best products for our clients and to partner with banking system in each country. We have developed the digitalization of one of the largest Telco companies in Latin America, and the CEO of that Telco’s Ecuador operations was elected to lead their global digital strategy thanks to our joint success.

Wall Street and Finance used to be an “all white boys club”. This has changed a lot recently. In your opinion, what caused this change?

This approach forgets that 50% of buying decisions are made by women. If only men develop products, then they may miss the mark with their female consumers. There is a long way to go with gender equality, but I think younger generations are more conscious of this gap, and this has started a global change. Women have to be more strategic in the workplace and help other women climb the corporate ladder. This will generate the most impact and change.

Of course, despite the progress, we still have a lot more work to do to achieve parity. According to this report in CNBC, less than 17 percent of senior positions in investment banks are held by women. In your opinion or experience, what 3 things can be done by a)individuals b) companies and /or c) society to support this movement going forward?

I believe that one of the most important things that women can do is support other women. I believe that the previous generation had to fight hard and collaboration among women didn’t exist. Companies should be more conscious of this problem as well, and try to make an effort to create more of a balance. Companies need to be more strategic, as a majority of consumers are women, and they need to understand their customers. What individuals and companies do will impact society, and therefore governments should be more conscious of the issue as well and make a real effort to change it.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There are two people that helped me a lot throughout my career. When I was promoted to be the Country Risk Manager for Ecuador at Citigroup, my boss was the Regional Credit Officer and he delegated all of the responsibilities to me. Even when the commercial side did not agree with my decisions, he always supported me by trusting in my judgement and providing me with feedback continuously so that I could continue learning.

Isabel Noboa, a very prestigious businesswomen and the majority shareholder of the family-owned group of companies I worked with, also trusted and supported me in one of the most important jobs I have held. Finally, my family has always supported me and they are my backbone.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

During the past five years, I have experienced a lot in my life, challenging myself and enjoying the path I’m on as well as the results. One of my favorite quotes is “Every thought we think is creating our future,” from Louise Hay, an author I enjoy reading. I believe that we alone are responsible and capable of changing our own life and that one small change can have a great impact on the world. We can decide each and every day how to react to each experience and make the best from it. It’s a daily effort for me, and I invite everyone to try it.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I believe that creating a more conscious individual will create a more conscious society, more conscious governments, and a more conscious world. It is important to understand the effect of an unconscious world: poverty, sickness, environmental disasters, corruption, inequality, among other very important issues that we need to face in the present. We need to teach children the importance of self being, of growing conscious, and of letting them be who they should be in life. I believe that, as Gandhi said, “we need to be the change we want to see in the world.” We need to learn from children and the connection they have with what is important in life.

Thank you for all of these great insights!

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About The Author:

Tyler Gallagher is the CEO and Founder of Regal Assets, a “Bitcoin IRA” company. Regal Assets is an international alternative assets firm with offices in the United States, Canada, London and Dubai focused on helping private and institutional wealth procure alternative assets for their investment portfolios. Regal Assets is an Inc. 500 company and has been featured in many publications such as Forbes, Bloomberg, Market Watch and Reuters. With offices in multiple countries, Regal Assets is uniquely positioned as an international leader in the alternative assets industry and was awarded the first ever crypto-commodities license by the DMCC in late 2017. Regal Assets is currently the only firm in the world that holds a license to legally buy and sell cryptos within the Middle East and works closely with the DMCC to help evolve and grow the understanding and application of blockchain technology. In addition to his role with Regal Assets, Tyler is a regular contributor to Forbes, Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global and Authority Magazine. Tyler has also been featured in many news publications and has been a guest expert on “The News with Ed Shultz”. Tyler is a proud member of the Forbes Finance Council a private invite only-group of hand-selected industry leaders.