Top 10 women to watch in fintech for 2023
As the fintech industry continues to flourish globally, breaking new boundaries and introducing more innovations to the market, women are taking an increasingly central role at the helm of disruptive fintech companies.
Whether they are C-level decision makers at established global companies or dynamic startup founders, their contribution to the changes in fintech – and the way products and services now better serve 50% of the world’s population – is undeniable.
We showcase the top 10 women to watch in 2023 and the companies they lead that are driving change.
Co-founder of Nubank
Financial innovator and fintech entrepreneur Cristina Junqueira has broken the glass ceiling in the fiercely male-oriented environment of the Brazilian financial industry, with her contributions helping to launch a new wave of digital banking and finance in the region.
Before the launch of Nubank – a collaboration between Junqueira and her two co-founders, David Vélez and Edward Wible – bank customers in Brazil had little choice but to fall into the demands of the incumbent banks, all of which charged high fees. for each service. Such exorbitant spending drained precious resources from hard-working families, thereby perpetuating, rather than helping, the economic inclusion gap.
A mother of two and qualified engineer, Junqueira helped launch Nubank in 2013. Her passion for driving change in the Brazilian banking world has in turn been realized, serving an estimated 75 million customers.
According to the IPO prospectus, Nubank’s total market potential was valued at $99 billion in 2020, and it has been predicted to grow to $126 billion by 2025.
President and COO, Coinbase
Emilie Choi holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She helped build the Coinbase exchange with the company’s founder and CEO, Brian Armstrong. Choi is also an avid angel investor and has participated in multiple seed, Series A and Series B funding rounds for a number of successful fintechs.
Prior to Coinbase, Choi served as LinkedIn’s vice president of corporate development, overseeing more than 40 transactions at LinkedIn – including the acquisitions of Lynda, Bright, Newsle, Connectifier, Slideshare and Fliptop, as well as LinkedIn’s JV in China and strategic investments in Cornerstone On Demand and G2 Crowd.
The dynamic COO and president has helped steer the company through four crypto winters and Coinbase’s latest round of layoffs. However, in regards to the volatility of cryptocurrency, the management team looks beyond the current economic cycle and says that despite the recent downturn, the company continues to be strong.
COO of Square Financial Services
The rise to success has not always been easy for Samantha Ku. After graduating from the University of Miami at 21 in the midst of an economic recession, she was deeply in debt and found the job market unforgiving. She recalls that it was “a perfect storm of emotions to end the greatest college experience anyone could have”.
But despite a period of unease that came after attending 50 job interviews with seemingly no success, Citibank offered Ku his first position in the financial industry in 2010.
She later joined Square in 2015 as head of operations, rising through the ranks to her current position as COO. Ku then built and led several teams that were the foundation of the Square Capital program product suite, growing the team to 100+ employees across SF, NYC, Las Vegas and Melbourne, Australia.
Co-founder and CEO of Starling Bank
Welsh entrepreneur Anne Boden MBE is a veteran of the finance industry. Prior to launching Starling Bank in 2014, Boden had a 30-year career with senior positions at Allied Irish Banks, Royal Bank of Scotland and ABN AMRO.
A qualified computer scientist, she was an early proponent of the use of technology in the financial industry and launched Starling Bank in 2014. Her strategy from the start was to make the bank a global brand.
As CEO, she oversees the Executive Leadership Team and is a member of Starling’s Board of Directors. Boden was awarded an MBE for his services to the finance and technology industry in 2018.
Chief Data Officer at Mastercard
JoAnn Stonier – former Head of Business Intelligence at Emirates Bank in the UAE – has spent two decades climbing the ranks at HSBC.
Stonier is a global data expert with significant experience creating data strategies and governance programs, ensuring data innovation while navigating data risks. She is a leading expert on data ethics and responsible data practices, with a focus on machine learning and AI. Her expertise includes expertise in anonymisation and analysis, and she is an assistant professor at both higher and lower level.
Group Chief Innovation Officer at Barclays
Mariquit Corcoran has 20 years’ experience in leading corporate teams in areas spanning interest, operations, risk management, finance and banking.
Prior to Barclays, she led the team responsible for sourcing and closing deals for all strategic engagements for a fintech start-up, Marcus by Goldman Sachs. Mariquit now sits on the Strategic Advisory Board for FTV Capital.
Corcoran was recognized in HERoe’s Top 100 Women Leaders in 2021, 2020 and 2019 by INvolve and Yahoo Finance; NYC FinTech Women’s Inspiring Women of 2019; and, most recently, named in 2021 FinTech Magazine/IBM’s Top 100 Women in FinTech.
In his spare time, Corcoran is an avid runner, dancer, tennis player and endurance racer.
Managing Director, Europe at Visa
With over 25 years of experience in financial services, banking and management consulting at Visa, Charlotte Hogg is a respected figure in the financial industry.
She served as Chief Operating Officer for the Bank of England from 2013 to 2017 and before that led retail distribution for Santander in the UK. Prior to these, Hogg was managing director of Experian’s operations in the UK and Ireland.
Earlier in his career, Hogg was also managing director of Goldfish Bank at Discover Financial Services, managing director of strategy and planning at Morgan Stanley, and management consultant at McKinsey & Company, based in the US.
Chief Information Officer at HSBC
Ghinwa Baradhi is considered one of the best CIO banking leaders globally. An innovative and dynamic leader who excels in leading multi-disciplined international virtual resource teams across both business and IT, she is HSBC’s nominated member of the UAE Banks Federation (UBF) IT Committee.
Baradhi is also HSBC’s Nominated Sponsor for Diversity and Inclusion for Technology, Globally. She sits on the Technical Advisory Board for Nodes Agency, a leading digital product development company, and is also an Advisory Board member for the Money 20/20 Asia RiseUp Program, a global accelerator program focused on gender diversity and supporting women across financial services.
Co-founder and CEO of Alphaa.io
Manuela Seve is the co-founder and CEO of US-based startup Alphaa.io and was recently named one of the 100 Most Influential Latinos/Latinas by Bloomberg.
Seve, an economics graduate from IBMEC, spent five years working with the former president of the Central Bank of Brazil, Armínio Fraga, at Gávea Investimentos.
In 2015, she began researching the use of blockchain for art collectibles authentication, and in 2017 she developed the Alphaa.io API – a blockchain platform that addresses three issues in the space, namely authenticity, resale and community building in various sectors.
CEO and founder of Sequin Financial
Vrinda Gupta is the innovative founder and CEO of Sequin Financial – a fintech company focused specifically on increasing credit scores for women. She launched the company after developing a card for Visa and then being rejected for the product.
Gupta was recently named one of NYC’s 55 Most Inspiring Women in Fintech, celebrated at the New York Stock Exchange. At the moment, she said: “This is a particularly meaningful honor, since the New York Stock Exchange took 175 years to put its first woman – Muriel Siebert. I am inspired by women’s progress and achievements, as inspiring leaders and innovators in an industry that was designed to leave women out of the narrative.”
