Women in Open Banking Meetup
Watch the inaugural Women in Open Banking membership event held at the Science Gallery in London on 1 March 2023. Discover the art of building a strong team, the power of effective communication, and the resilience required to overcome obstacles. Our debate panellists shared their wisdom, skills and experience.
Charlotte Duerden
Charlotte Duerden
Chief Customer Officer, International American ExpressAs Chief Customer Officer, Charlotte is responsible for growing relationships with our customers internationally. By developing best in class products, evolving how to attract new customers and enhancing capabilities and processes, Charlotte and her team are transforming how the company connects with customers and enriching what it means to be a member of American Express.
Prior to this role Charlotte led the UK Business as Country Manager delivering record levels of Billings and Revenue growth; solidifying the UK as one of the best performing markets outside of the United States. Charlotte joined American Express in 2000 and has held roles including Head of Product, Pricing & Portfolio Management for Europe and Head of Brand and Marketing.
Charlotte is passionate about ensuring American Express is a welcoming place where everyone can bring their whole selves to work. She led the company’s commitment to signing the Women in Finance charter, the Race at Work charter and becoming a signatory of The Valuable 500 with its commitment to action on disability inclusion. As part of her advocacy for diversity, equity, and inclusion she also supported the creation of the Inclusion and Diversity Council in the UK and has taken a personal interest in actively championing colleagues to achieve their ambitions.
Outside of American Express, Charlotte is a trustee of the Friends of St Marcellin’s Children, a charity supporting orphans and vulnerable children in Africa.
Emma Steeley
Emma Steeley
Chief Executive Officer AroEmma Steeley was appointed CEO in July 2022 of Freedom Finance, a leading UK digital lending marketplace and embedded finance platform.
Freedom Finance partners with over 100 of the UK’s leading lenders and service providers to help customers access a range of consumer credit, mortgage and other financial products through its proprietary matching platform; its embedded finance marketplace is used by high-street brands such as Argos, Asda, The Co-Op Bank, RAC, Very Group and many more.
Emma will lead the next stage of the company’s exciting development and joins from Equifax, where she spent nearly four years as CEO of AccountScore. She has spent over 16 years working in senior roles in the consumer finance and fintech sector, consistently delivering product led growth and successful data driven business models.
Holly Coventry
Holly Coventry
Vice President UK Sales American ExpressHolly is responsible for continuing to grow the UK business and creating the future vision and roadmap for Open Banking Payments globally. Holly is an accomplished, well-respected leader who is strategic and commercially focused in her approach. She has an entrepreneurial and partner centric outlook and is highly adept at working in the emerging fintech Open Banking space.
Joy Macknight
Joy Macknight
Advisory Board Member Fintech Circle InstituteJoy Macknight is editor at The Banker. She joined the publication in 2015 as transaction banking and technology editor. Previously, she was features editor at Profit & Loss, editorial director at Treasury Today and editor at gtnews. She also worked as staff writer on Banking Technology and IBM Computer Today, as well as a freelancer on Computer Weekly.
Sendi Young
Sendi Young
Managing Director RippleSendi is a fintech executive with more than 16 years international experience in financial services/payments and consulting, with focus on strategy, business development, partnerships, and product commercialization. She is currently the Managing Director of Europe for Ripple. In the last 5 years, Sendi held several leadership roles at Mastercard’s Data & Services business, with global responsibility for strategy, commercialization, partnerships, and business development. Most recently, Sendi led the Fintech & Digital Segment. Previously, she led commercialisations of services around real-time payments, open banking, artificial intelligence and government; and led sales to UK&I banks. Prior to Mastercard, Sendi delivered rapid operational optimisation to large corporates at the consultancy, AlixPartners. Before that Sendi led the development of a global cash management solution at HSBC. Sendi holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and BA in Economics from Brown University.
Simon Lyons
Simon Lyons
Chief Strategy Officer Obconnect.ioSimon is Ex OBIE and now a Standards transformation lead at Pay.Uk. During his time at OBIE he was intrinsic in the UK Government delivering their Open Banking effort which has matured to process over £6BN in perfect tax payments. He now continues to work with the standards of Open Banking from Pay.Uk where he leads an initiative to deliver a solution to a legacy problem that 45% of the UK workforce faces every single week. Continued engagement with the tax authorities has allowed Simon to assist HMRC in expansion of Open Banking into areas that have always faced legacy challenges.
I firmly believe that the biggest change I will see in my career in Banking is the availability of standardised APIs. Getting the bank you want not the one you are given is immensely powerful. Starting the banking journey from within existing channels is the shift change. The benefits are clear to see.
Wasim Mushtaq
Wasim Mushtaq
Founder & Chief Executive Officer 1CGWith two decades of leadership in financial services, Wasim has driven operational excellence, strategic transformation across global banks and innovative startups. He is the Founder & CEO of 1CG, Strategic Partner to Birdie, Advisory Board Member to BankAbility and the Operational Excellence Society.
Starting his career in business banking at Abbey National, Wasim went on to manage UK Libor lending teams at RBS. At Barclays Wealth Management, as VP and Head of Credit Operations, he later led the launch of Smart Investor. His consultancy roles in the CIO office focused on system decommissioning, platform implementations, banking entity closures, product launches, and structural reform for Barclays Private Bank.
In fintech, as Director of Operations at AskIf, Wasim launched CBILS with the British Business Bank, developed SME green finance initiatives, and managed third-party vendors. At Standard Chartered, he led global transformation in Financial Markets, driving change across 45 regulatory markets and overseeing a group-wide material outsourcing programme.
Most recently, as Interim COO of CFIT (Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology), leading organisational capability in governance, finance, technology, operations, strategic deliverables, partnering with ExCo to advance coalitions, ecosystems, and partnerships.
Wasim holds a Master’s in Economics from the University of Glasgow, has completed executive certificates at Oxford’s Saïd Business School and MIT Sloan. His areas of expertise include business strategy, digital transformation, client journeys, process reengineering, lending, regulatory compliance, corporate innovation, and outsourcing solutions.
