Plaid hires from Booking.com for head of Europe role

Open Banking payments network Plaid has appointed Ripsy Bandourian as head of Europe to lead its expansion in the region.

Bandourian joins the company from global travel platform Booking.com, where she worked for eight years, most recently as VP of global accommodation partnerships, leading the supply-side strategy. Prior to that, she led the company’s app experience and the business travel partnerships strategy.

Ripsy Bandourian, head of Europe at Plaid

In her new role at Plaid, Amsterdam-based Bandourian will lead the company’s strategy, operations, and business-facing teams across continental Europe.

In a Plaid blog post published on 11 April, Bandourian wrote about Europe that “the opportunity for Plaid, our customers, and our partners in the region has never been greater”.

“It is in this context that I am thrilled to announce that I am joining Plaid as head of Europe,” she said.

“I hope to bring my knowledge and expertise of platforms and ecommerce to develop our solutions further and help companies across the region make sense of Open Banking and what it can do for their operations and customers – whether it’s to build faster payment flows, or to offer new products and services tailored to customers’ unique needs.”

Before she worked at Booking.com, she held several roles in product and strategy for Apple EMEA in London, and has also worked as a consultant at McKinsey in London, having begun her career as a quantitative analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York.

In December last year, Plaid launched a new product in the UK, called ‘Payouts’, building on its offering in the UK.