Meet Mark Appel: The new CMO of Amsterdam fintech unicorn Backbase

CMO for Backbase, Mark Appel | Image credit: LinkedIn (Mark Appel)

Amsterdam-based unicorn Backbase, a category-leading Engagement Banking Platform that empowers financial institutions to accelerate their digital transformation, announced on Tuesday, January 3 that it has appointed Mark Appel as its Chief Marketing Officer.

This development follows the recent appointments of Markwin Geneste (Chief Commercial Officer) and Roland Booijen (General Manager of Ecosystems), in 2022. The Dutch unicorn says it has now strengthened its management team after bringing in Mark Appel.

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Backbase Founder and CEO Jouk Pleiter mentions, “Mark’s curiosity for new technologies and inspirational leadership will build on the foundation of rejuvenating our marketing team as a high-performance revenue engine for Backbase. Mark represents Backbase’s core values ​​of craftsmanship, entrepreneurship and can-do, and I am happy to work with him.”

Who is Mark Appel?

Appel will lead Backbase’s marketing team. He has over 30 years of experience working with technology and growing companies, including Apple, Twinfield (which was acquired by Wolters Kluwer), Exact Software, and most recently CM.com.

Mark Appel, CMO of Backbase, says: “I am delighted to bring my experience to Backbase as we pursue our ambitious purpose to improve the daily financial lives of 10 percent of the world’s population. I look forward to building structures that will continue to drive brand recognition and amplify demand generation at Backbase.”

During his time at CM.com, in less than three years, Appel nearly quadrupled CM.com’s revenue while growing the marketing department from 10 to 80 workers. In his previous position at Exact, he led the transition to SaaS and doubled the company’s size during his 8-year tenure.

As CMO of Backbase, Appel will be responsible for supporting the growth that has seen Backbase exceed €200 million in revenue and be named to CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list for 2022.

Briefly about Backbase

Founded in 2003 by Jouk Pleiter and Gerbert Kaandorp (no longer with the company), Backbase is a financial technology company that aims to “re-architect banking” around the customer.

According to the company, its white-label Engagement Banking platform enables banks and credit unions to rapidly digitize their operations that interact with consumers. It also claims to create seamless journeys that both meet and exceed the expectations of today’s tech-savvy customers.

With global headquarters in Amsterdam, Backbase has regional offices in Atlanta (Americas HQ), Boise, Mexico City, Toronto, London, Cardiff, Dubai, Kraków, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo.

The company has over 150 clients worldwide, including Advanzia, Banco Caja Social, Banco de la Nacion Peru, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Berenberg, BNP Paribas, Citizens Bank, ENT, Greater Bank, HDFC, Judo Bank, KeyBank, National Bank of Bahrain, Navy Federal Credit Union, Natwest, SchoolFirst Federal Credit Union, Standard Bank, Société Générale, Washington State Employee Credit Union and Wildfire Credit Union among many others.