Women in Fintech Career Journeys with Bluesnap, Corpay, Mambu, Taulia, PPRO, INZMO

This October at The Fintech Times is all about the incredible women working in the fintech industry. With women still making up only around 30 percent of the workforce, it’s important to shine a spotlight on those working to make a change and pave the way for them to follow.

Here we are talking to Nikhita Hyett, Juhie Kapoor, Meeri Savolainen, Laura Rofe and Bronwyn Boyle when they share their career journeys and whether they expected to end up in fintech.

Nikhita Hyett, Managing Director – Europe, at BlueSnap

“In truth, working with fintech was not in my sights when I started my professional career. For 10 years before entering this industry, I was a newspaper and magazine journalist traveling the world covering everything from interviews with former President Barack Obama and Simon Cowell (not together!) to a number of Strictly Come Dancing grand finals, to the shocking terrorist attack in Mumbai in 2008. After having my first child in 2012 and returning to the magazine I was then working at, I realized it was no longer writing my passion.

“My husband works in fintech, and I saw how the sector flourished. There was so much innovation, opportunity and investment happening. The first company I worked for, Global Blue, took a chance on hiring a showbiz hack to manage some of their most important accounts. But I like to think it was a gamble that paid off for them. The skills I learned in newspapers and magazines are transferable and have given me the confidence to pursue my fintech career with full gusto.”

Meeri Savolainen, founder and CEO of INZMO

“My background is in law and I graduated with an MA in law from the University of Tartu in Estonia. At the time this was very much the career path I wanted to take and I invested a lot of time in my studies to qualify to become a lawyer.

“After graduating, I joined the team of corporate lawyers at Ernst & Young. I enjoyed my job, worked with wonderful people and had an excellent experience. But it was all a bit too safe and I felt I was capable of taking more risks and more responsibility. I have always been driven by innovation and I wanted to create something that had not been created before. I wanted to lead and develop my own team and achieve something bigger.

“Six years ago, my co-founder and I started Bicycle ID, an international bicycle register to combat bicycle theft. To monetize our platform, we integrated an app to sell bike insurance. It was from that point on that we realized the potential of user-friendly online insurance services. When we presented the solution to potential insurance partners, we received a lot of valuable feedback and interest in selling P&C products using our app and technology.

“A year later, we changed the business to become an online B2B2C insurance agent and renamed the company INZMO.”

Juhie Kapoor, Director of Global Content and Communications at Taulia

“I started life studying biology and loved the sciences. At university I realized that laboratory work was not for me, so I decided to travel. To raise money I worked in a bank and continued to work for banks throughout my career. It was a coincidence when I met Taulia and fell in love with their innovation, people and marketing approach. A few years after this first meeting, a role came up and I jumped at the chance.

“It was refreshing to be in an environment that was agile and youthful. A company where you felt that everything you did contributed. It’s been almost five years and to be honest, I haven’t looked back!”

Laura Rofe, director of partner development in PPRO

“When you think about it, fintech has only really exploded as an industry since the financial crisis. I think if you talk to most people in payments and fintech, most of them will say that they ‘never expected’ to end up in fintech. It’s one of those industries that you tend to fall into, but once you’re in, you stay for life.

“My career started with being accepted onto a graduate program for Australia’s largest bank and it grew from there. When I set out on my journey to London in 2012, I didn’t expect it to be so difficult to find a role and I had to take a big step back in my career to work my way back up.

“But for this I am grateful, as it allowed me to experience many verticals in the fintech and payments world, from prepaid cards to issuing and acquiring local payment methods, as well as international payments, not to mention being able to meet some incredibly knowledgeable and talented people . I accidentally moved away from fintech, but this was a short period when fintech beckoned me to go back to my roots.”

Bronwyn Boyle, Information Security Manager at Mambu

“I started my career in technology as a software developer, cutting code and developing financial systems in the first wave of banking back in the dot-com era. I really loved coding and enjoyed the development side, but soon realized that cyber security was treated in a silo that was not integrated in software development.

“This made me understand more about how to integrate security practices into developing secure code. I decided to take a year to study for an MSc in Security and Forensic Computing and that’s how I started my journey in cyber security .

“I am passionate about how digital payments, e-commerce and cloud banking are transforming banking offerings and helping to democratize financial services for underbanked communities. This passion, combined with my experience working with traditional banks and legacy organizations, drew me to the fintech industry.

“With over 20 years of experience working with technology and security in financial services and supporting several organizations, I joined Mambu in 2021 as information security manager. In my current role, I oversee the security of Mambu’s banking-as-a-service platform and the wider organisation. I also support security across the wider ecosystem for customers using Mambu to open up financial services, drive innovation and support financial inclusion around the world.