Fintech Focus — September 2019

Every month we share a curated selection of people moves in fintech. If your colleagues or friends would like to subscribe to our newsletter, we’ve included a subscribe link here, or they can visit our website.

Fintech priority: diverse boards and executive teams

Forbes published a startlingly-tone-deaf list of the 100 most innovative CEOs this month, with only one female in the bunch: Barbara Rentler, CEO of Ross Stores. There was immediate blowback: 46 female CEOs wrote sharply-worded letters to the Forbes editorial board, including Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe.

Diversity of all types — including gender — is a cornerstone value at Intersection. We crunched the numbers and are glad to report that 57% of our placements over the past 3 years have come from underrepresented groups.

Select Leadership Moves

September 2019

• Accel: Amy Saper joined Accel as an Investor focused on early stage e-commerce, health, wellness, SaaS, and API-first companies. Amy was previously Product Marketing Lead for Applications products including billing, mobile apps, and reporting at Stripe. Link
• Addepar: Don Nilsson joined Addepar as Chief Product Officer. Don was previously Senior VP of Product Development at FactSet Research Systems.
• aCrew Capital: Theresia Gouw is the Founding Partner of a new early stage VC, aCrew Capital. Theresia was previously a Founding Partner of Aspect Ventures and has worked with several fintech companies through IPOs and acquisitions including Trulia, HotelTonight, and LearnVest. Lauren Kolodny and Vishal Lugani, both from Aspect Ventures, will join Theresia as Founding Partners at aCrew. Link
• Airbnb: Bart Rubin joined Airbnb as Deputy General Counsel for the Payments department. Bart was previously Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer at Payoneer where he built and led their global legal and regulatory efforts.
• Anthemis: Katie Palencsar joined Anthemis as the Lead Principal of Female Innovators Lab, Anthemis and Barclay’s venture studio focused on providing pre-seed funding to female-founded startups. Katie’s new role with Anthemis will be in addition to her current position as Founder and Principal of New Patriarch, a company she launched to advise and advocate for female-owned businesses. Link
• Bain Capital Ventures: Keri Gohman joined Bain Capital Ventures as an Operating Partner and will work with the firm’s fintech portfolio companies. Keri was previously Chief Business Platform Business Officer at Xero. Link
• BlueVine: Brad Brodigan joined BlueVine as Chief Commercial Officer to oversee sales and other income-producing functions. Brad was previously Chief Operating Officer at digital payments firm, Dosh. Link
• Brex: Shruti Gupta and Whitney Merrill joined Brex as Director of Engineering and Privacy and Data Counsel, respectively. Shruti was previously Head of Security and Compliance at Instacart; Whitney was previously Privacy, eCommerce, and Consumer Protection Counsel at EA Sports. Link
• Celo: Alex Witt joined Celo as Head of Finance. Alex was previously Chief Financial Officer at SWFT Blockchain.
• Coinbase: Dan Yoo joined Coinbase as the new VP of Business and Data reporting into Emilie Choi who was promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Dan was previously Chief Operating Officer at Nerdwallet. Link
• Collective Health: Haleigh Tebben and Marianne Holt joined Collective Health as Chief Business Development Officer and Director of Benefits Innovation, respectively. Haleigh was previously Partner of the Western Market at Mercer. Marianne was previously Director of Global Benefits at Lululemon. Link
• Figure: Jakub Jurek joined Figure as Chief Data Officer. Jakub was previously VP of Data Science at Wealthfront. He was also the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Wealthfront Strategies during his time at the firm. Figure promoted Ashley Harris from Deputy General Counsel to General Counsel. Link
• Gemini: We enjoyed partnering with Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss to recruit Noah Perlman to Gemini as Chief Compliance Officer. Noah was previously the Global Head of Financial Crimes at Morgan Stanley, where he oversaw a global team of 350 people. Link
• Goldman Sachs: Marco Argenti and Atte Lahtiranta joined Goldman Sachs as Co-Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer, respectively. Marco was previously VP of Technology at Amazon Web Services. Atte was previously Chief Technology Officer at Verizon’s media group. Link. Also, Kim Posnet and Tammy Kiely were promoted and awarded the additional roles of Co-Chief Operating Officer of the global TMT banking group, and Co-Head of Global Technology Investment Banking, respectively. Kim is the Global Head of Internet Investment Banking. Tammy is Global Head of Semiconductor Investment Banking. Link
• Heracles: Jeremy Solomon joined Heracles as Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer. Jeremy was previously Head of Finance and Capital Markets at Affirm.
• Index Ventures: Mark Fiorentino joined Index Ventures as a fintech, real estate, and enterprise SaaS investor. Mark was previously at Stripe where he helped build and lead the Business Strategy & Finance team.
• Interstellar: Mike Kennedy joined Interstellar as Chief Executive Officer. Mike was the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Zelle. Link
• Intuit: Stephen Root joined Intuit as Vice President of Brand, Marketing Strategy and Planning. Stephen was previously Vice President of Global Client and Digital Products Marketing at Visa.
• Marqeta: Vidya Peters joined Marqeta as the company’s first Chief Marketing Officer. Vidya was previously Chief Marketing Officer at Mulesoft. Link
• Mission Lane: Shane Holdaway joined Mission Lane, the spinoff company of LendUp, as the company’s first Chief Executive Officer. Shane was previously Chief Executive Officer of Barclays’ US Consumer Bank. Link
• Oak HC/FT: Leah Scanlan joined Oak HC/FT as a Talent Partner where she will work closely with portfolio companies on talent initiatives. Leah was previously an Operating Partner at Khosla Ventures. Link
• Oscar Health: Meghan Joyce joined Oscar Health as Chief Operating Officer. Meghan was previously a Regional General Manager at Uber where she oversaw operations, marketing, strategy, and customer support. Link
• Owl Capital: Jennifer Fonstad is the Founding Partner of the new early stage VC, Owl Capital. Jennifer was previously a Founding Partner of Aspect Ventures and a Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Rebecca Hu and Chad Herrin, both from Aspect Ventures, will join Jennifer at Owl Capital. Link
• Ripple: Ron Hammond joined Ripple as Manager of Government Relations, reporting to Michelle Bond, Global Head of Government Relations. Ron is a former political advisor and legislative assistant to Representative Warren Davidson. Link
• Plastiq: Tal Yeshanov joined Plastiq as Head of Risk. Tal was previously a Manager of Risk Analytics at Uber. Link
• Sequoia Capital: Ravi Gupta will join Sequoia Capital as a Partner on their growth team in January. Ravi was previously the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Instacart. Link
• SoftBank: Kristin Bannon and Serena Dayal joined SoftBank as a Vice President and Investment Director of SoftBank Vision Fund, respectively. Kristin was previously a Vice President of Technology Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley. Serena was previously Senior Vice President of Private Equity Investments at Fortress. Link
• Splitit: Splitit promoted Brad Paterson from Managing Director of North America to Chief Executive Officer in preparation of Gil Don’s departure in October. Link
• Storj Labs: Katherine Johnson joined Storj Labs as VP of Compliance and Human Resources, as well as General Counsel. Katherine was previously Director of Compliance Regulation at Coinbase. Link
• Tally: Paul Williams joined Tally as Head of Finance and Operations, succeeding Erica Dorfman who is now Vice President of Operations Brex. Paul was previously Head of Capital Markets at Earnest.
• UiPath: Chris Townsend joined UiPath as VP of Federal Sales. Chris was previously the Federal VP of Sales and Operations at Symantec. Link Additionally, Ashim Gupta, UiPath’s Chief Customer Success Officer, will take on the role of Chief Information Officer until the company identifies a replacement for Jeana Sublett who left the position in January. Link
• U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC): Dorothy DeWitt joined the CFTC as Director of the Division of Market Oversight. Dorothy was previously General Counsel of Business Lines and Markets at Coinbase. Link
• VantageScore Solutions: Benjamin Tagoe joined VantageScore Solutions as SVP of the Strategic Planning and Alliances Group. Benjamin was previously VP of Consumer and Community Banking Strategies at JP Morgan Chase. Link
• Varo Money: Smith Forté joined Varo Money as Chief Product Officer. Smith was previously the Chief Product Officer at Acorns. Link
• WeWork: Frances Frei joined WeWork’s board as their first female director. Frances is currently a Professor of Technology and Operations Management at Harvard Business School. She was previously SVP of Leadership and Strategy at Uber. Link Also, Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham were promoted to Co-Chief Executive Officers after Adam Neumann stepped down. Artie was previously Chief Financial Officer and Sebastian was Vice Chairman. Link
• Zillow: Rian Furey joined Zillow as President of Zillow Home Loans where he will oversee Zillow’s Mortgage Portfolio. Rian was previously Chief Operating Officer of Impac Mortgage. Link

What We’re Following

• Business Insider article: Insurtechs say AI and big data could soon transform insurance policies. But the impact of their technology on riskier customers is raising regulatory and ethical questions.
• Rhyme Combinator video: a Hamilton-inspired rap battle video about the cryptocurrency debate.
• a16z podcast: Andreessen Horowitz general partner, Katie Haun, interviews co-founder Marc Andreessen.
• Equal by Carrie Gracie: Published this month by former BBC China editor Carrie Gracie, Equal is an inspiring, personal and campaigning book about how we should and can fight for equal pay and other kinds of equality in the workplace.
• Plaid press release: Mastercard and Visa are making bets on the next players in payments.

Happy Autumn!
Scott, Hugh, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Marissa

Intersection Growth Partners is a retained executive search firm that builds the leadership teams transforming financial services. Our clients include challenger fintechs, global financial institutions and leading investors in the space.