Directors
Craig Goulding
Co-founder
After gaining a double first in Physics from Oxford University, Craig worked developing missile tracking systems. He then moved into Finance becoming a Managing Director & CTO at JPMorgan. He pivoted into Consumer digital banking in the middle of this decade. Craig is the mastermind behind the technology that has made Currensea possible.
James Lynn
Co-founder
James created market leading electronic FX trading systems for some of the world’s largest investment banks, such as Barclays Capital and Credit Agricole. He then pivoted into Corporate Banking, running the digital business for RBS. His deep understanding of FX and payments is now focussed on saving travellers money.
Libby Chambers
Non-executive director
Libby has a passion for growing businesses and building great teams. She has held executive roles at Morgan Stanley, McKinsey, Barclays, and Western Union. Currently, she is an Operating Partner at Searchlight Capital Partners and serves on the Boards of Wise plc, TSB Bank plc, Currensea, and Sightline Payments.
Advisors
Maurice Cleaves
Managing Director and CEO
Maurice Cleaves was the CEO of Payments UK from 2014 until 2017. Prior to that, Maurice was at Barclays Bank (2011-2014) where he was Global Head of Cash Management and a member of the Corporate Bank Exco with a co-head responsibility for all products.
Sean Hastings
Co-founder
Sean Hastings is CEO of B2C distribution. Prior to this he was the CCO of River Island and Group Marketing Director of Pentland Brands. Sean has significant experience building global brands and delivering brand growth.
Marc O'Brien
CEO and Angel Investor
Marc was CEO of Visa UK and Ireland, before leading the Payments and Fintech practice as a Senior Partner at Capco. He has been on the advisory boards of a number of well-known fintech ventures including Revolut.
Ian O'Doherty
CEO
Ian was the CEO of MBNA in the UK and Ireland for over 20 years and was the driving force behind the affinity card initiative. He was integral to the sale of MBNA to Lloyds in 2017 for £1.9bn and was most recently the CEO of Appreciate Group PLC. He has also won numerous industry awards for customer service and employee engagement.
Al-Noor Ramji
Group Chief Digital Officer and CEO
Al-Noor was the Group Chief Digital officer for Prudential PLC. Prior to this he was CEO Misys Banking, CIO of British Telecom, CIO of Dresdner Kleinwort and CIO of UBS.
Geoff Smailes
Charity & ESG Advisor
Geoff has an economics degree from Cambridge university and then spent 30 years managing trading businesses in banking and asset management. He is now focussed on advising the fintech sector on how to ‘Give-back' and understand their ESG obligations.
Robin Terrell
Non-Executive Director, Chairman
Robin Terrell has held a number of C-level positions across retail, consumer and digital businesses. This includes a 4-year stint as the UK MD of Amazon as well as time at Tesco plc, where he held a number of different roles: Group Multichannel Director, UK MD and Chief Customer Officer.
Investors
James Copley
Managing Director, Talon Outdoor
James Copley has been a key player in the advertising industry in London for more than 20 years. He is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Talon Outdoor, one of the market leaders in the Out of Home media space in the UK. He is an active investor in high energy, disruptive startups across the UK.
Ian Harjette
Global Co-Head, Santander Global
Ian Harjette spent 3 decades in senior and Executive roles in investment banking. For the past 10 years, Ian has been part of Santander Corporate & Investment Banking management and more recently a member of its Global Corporate and Investment Banking Executive Committee. Before joining Santander, Ian held senior positions at Bank of America, Nomura and Lehman Brothers. Ian is now an active investor in start-ups.
Mark Kimber
CIO
Mark Kimber has held a series of high profile roles over a number of years in the Financial Services industry. Until recently Mark was the global CIO of Worldpay providing technology leadership to the firm, and helping navigate the business through IPO and mergers. Prior to this role, Mark was the CIO of JPMorgan Chase, EMEA Region. Mark is now involved in a variety of innovative and disruptive initiatives in the world of finance.
Eric Newnham
CEO, Talon Outdoor
Eric Newnham is the CEO of Talon Outdoor - the market leader in the Out of Home media space across the UK, and has been a key figure in the advertising space in London for many years. He has built and sold several successful businesses in the media space over the past decade. Eric is an active investor and NED of several cutting edge digital businesses across the UK.
Charles Pickard
Division Director, Macquarie Group
Charles Pickard is a Division Director of Macquarie Bank (London Branch), having previously been Global Head of Risk for the Corporate and Asset Finance Group and Head of Credit for Macquarie in Singapore. Additionally, he is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales (UK) and New South Wales (Australia).
Mark Simons
Head of Sales Optimisation
Mark is Head of Sales Optimisation at Total. He is an established leader in energy trading & origination, specialising in establishing new businesses. Over the last 20 years he has led energy trading businesses for Maersk, Bg Group and BP.
Ben Slatter
Partner, Rutland Partners
Ben is a Partner at Rutland Partners Private Equity. He has been credited with deals across a wide set of industries including Total Rail Solutions, Gardman, Cedo, BAYV, Pusle Home Products, H&T, NoteMachine and The Music Group. Prior to Rutland, Ben trained as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Anderson and then spent two years with their corporation Finance Team in London.
Farahad Zama
Director, Barclays
Farahad is a hugely experienced Investment Banking technologist, having worked as a Director across JPMorgan, Barclays Capital and Merrill Lynch, specialising in building market leading FX trading systems.
