Women in Fintech career journeys with Bitpanda, Tribe Payments, Apiture, Moneyhub and DriveWealth

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 Lindsay Ross, Helen Owen, Jennifer Dimenna, Amanda Bennettand Hiral Desaias they share their career journeys and whether they expected to end up in fintech.

Lindsay Ross, CHRO at Bitpanda

While fintech is something I have always had a bias towards, when I was approached for the role of CHRO at Bitpanda, I had all my focus and energy invested in my previous position at Messagebird, an omnichannel communication platform as a service.

Going ‘way’ back, I started my career as an ‘Integrated Talent Management Specialist’ at Nike before leaving to do both people and communications roles at PVH (Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein).

My first real taste of fintech came at Ayden, where I gained hands-on experience in what it takes to go from a startup to a multi-billion-dollar behemoth—quickly—while working with entrepreneurs. In the end, my decision to switch to Austria’s first unicorn, Bitpanda, was really sealed after I spoke with Paul and Eric (Bitpanda’s founders and CEOs).

I was so incredibly impressed, not only by the amazing product Bitpanda offers in such an innovative industry – making investing easy and accessible to everyone – but also by the very inclusive people-first culture promoted here.

Helen Owen, VP Marketing at Tribe Payments

I fell into fintech before fintech was even a term. Over fifteen years ago, I was headhunted for a role in First data to lead marketing and communications for their UK business.

Back then it was very much an industry focused on cards, procurement and traditional banking – a bit dry and boring to be honest – until I found the real potential of technology in areas like fraud detection and that’s where I got really interested in what would later be called ‘fintech’.

After a few years at First Data in a regional director role, I set up as a freelance market consultant, focusing on payments and fintech. I was really privileged to work with about 20 different fintechs and some really amazing people in my nine years of consulting. Some just needed extra support with their content marketing, some needed a part marketing manager, so what I did with each company varied a lot.

I was very fortunate to work in quite a few different pockets of fintech and that has made me a bona fide fintech geek. I still learn something new or hear about a new company or new initiative every day and I love that about this industry.

Jennifer Dimenna, SVP of Product at Apiture

When I graduated from college with a degree in technical communications, I took a job at a small software company documenting the software they produced to help banks streamline their payment processes.

In 1997, I did not know that I was entering a burgeoning industry that would later be called fintech. Over the years, I progressed from documenting the software to designing requirements, to leading teams of product managers whose job it was to understand the problems faced by financial institutions and develop creative digital solutions to those problems.

When I started in fintech, I was often the only woman in the room. But throughout my career, women have increasingly been responsible for defining, designing and building digital banking software. Women’s growing recognition that a career in tech is a viable and interesting option means I get to spend a lot of time with smart, talented women who are excited about fintech.

Amanda Bennett, CFO, Moneyhub

I have always had an interest in the financial sector and it was part of my role while in accountancy practice.

I started my career in 1982 as a chartered accountant trainee and then moved into an industry with roles in manufacturing (Dyson) before returning to the accountancy profession, specializing in taxation and running teams across four offices, then became Group FD.

I started my consulting practice in 2011, serving as an interim/part-time FD and MD in various sectors including recruitment, engineering and manufacturing, before joining Moneyhub in 2019.

Hiral Desai, Head of Marketing at DriveWealth

“When I was younger, I dreamed of becoming a lawyer – partly because my parents told me I argued. As time went on, I discovered my love for problem solving, so the compromise for my family was engineering.

“In college I studied engineering. When it was time to graduate, I went for an internship interview for a financial firm and that’s when my fintech journey began.

“That interview led to networking opportunities – and before I knew it, I was in a product management role for a technology solution. I’ll be honest – I wasn’t looking for a career in technology. I just wanted to learn something new and challenge myself. I took the chance.

“What surprised me was how fintech allowed me to put all the pieces together – from my love of puzzles, my engineering background and my need to engage in complex debates, it was like I had found a new passion.

“Careers are journeys – you travel from one place to another. In my career so far, I have been relationship manager, product manager, sales support and now marketing manager. I don’t know what happens next, I just know I’m excited to find out.”