In the dynamic world of fintech, marketing is a critical business function that helps drive innovation, foster business growth and nurture enduring relationships with various stakeholders including consumers, partners, investors, policymakers, and the media.
The Fintech Marketing Hub, a London based global fintech marketing community, released on April 10 its 4th edition of the Top 30 Most Influential Fintech Marketers list, recognizing the contributions of marketing professionals who have significantly impacted the European fintech sector.
This year’s top 30 marketing professionals were selected by a jury of level-C executives from the fintech sector based on the degree of these marketers’ influence and achievements over the past year, including their total reach across different channels, engagement levels, insights relevance, community involvement, media appearance, and any notable achievements.
Among this year’s top 30 fintech marketers, 19 are based in Europe, and represent industry leaders including Wise, Finastra and Airwallex. These professionals are spread across seven different countries, with the UK being the most prominent (13). Other locations represented include Switzerland, France, Czech Republic and Germany.
Today, we’ll take a closer look at the 19 fintech marketers based in Europe that made it into this year’s Top 30 Most Influential Fintech Marketers list, delving into their careers and notable accomplishments.
Andrew Davies, CMO, Paddle (UK)
Andrew Davies serves as the CMO at Paddle, a company specializing in providing complete payments infrastructure for over 4,000 software companies.
Before joining Paddle, Davies held the position of vice president (VP) of corporate marketing at Optimizely (formerly Episerver), following its acquisition of Idio. In this role, he led global strategy and activities for demand generation, branding, digital marketing, account-based marketing (ABM), and content creation. During his tenure, Optimizely integrated five acquisitions, underwent a complete rebranding, and achieved significant growth in pipeline and sales.
Davies is also the co-founder of Idio, where he served as the CMO and oversaw people operations. Under his leadership, Idio emerged as a market leader in business-to-business (B2B) personalization, catering to enterprise clients such as Pegasystems, BNY Mellon, Fitch Group, and Pure Storage. The company raised over US$13 million from institutional investors, including Notion Capital, and various angel investors.
Additionally, Davies sits on the board of Ninety, an agile digital transformation consultancy catering to the insurance industry. Ninety operates as a social enterprise, with 90% of distributable profits allocated towards alleviating global poverty.
Outside his professional roles, Davies is actively involved in advising, supporting, and investing in early-stage startups, assisting them with proposition development, team building, marketing strategy, and funding.
Chantal Swainston, Founder, The Heard (UK)
Chantal Swainston is the founder of The Heard, an award winning platform to get more women and non-binary people in fintech into public speaking.
Swainston has nearly a decade of experience in technology and fintech public relations, and throughout her career, she has collaborated with a diverse array of household consumer brands and groundbreaking B2B entities
Swainston’s professional portfolio encompasses a broad spectrum of accomplishments, including the introduction of brands to new markets, the successful launch of innovative products within the realms of open banking and investments, and adeptly managing corporate issues and reputational crises. Notably, she played a pivotal role in overseeing the UK communications strategy for Wise’s listing on the London Stock Exchange.
Cian Weeresinghe, CMO, Wise (UK)
Cian Weeresinghe is the CMO of cross-border payment specialist Wise. Previously, Weeresinghe was the chief customer officer of Secret Escapes, a members-only travel and experiences company, working across brand, performance marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), data science, and product. He’s also spent time at The Guardian, ASOS, eBay, Lloyds Bank, and Capital One.
Duarte Garrido, Growth Marketer and Startup Advisor (UK)
Duarte Garrido is a seasoned growth marketer and startup advisor with over a decade of experience spanning both B2B and business-to-customer (B2C) sectors. His expertise encompasses brand and growth marketing, social media management, omnichannel strategy, corporate communications, and content development. Over the years, Garrido has collaborated with prominent players in financial services, media, fintech, and greentech industries on a global scale.
Throughout his career, Garrido has achieved notable milestones, including establishing an internal digital marketing studio serving over 70 markets, transforming online sentiment from 18% to 80% positive, reducing customer acquisition cost (CAC) by 24% within two months, and boosting marketing generated pipeline by 40% in under six months. Additionally, he has played a pivotal role in advising on martech adoption and driving digital transformation initiatives.
Currently, Garrido serves as vice president of marketing and corporate advisor to several Series B-C scaleups where he leverages his expertise to develop and implement effective marketing and brand strategies. Moreover, he is sought after as a speaker and workshop facilitator, delivering insights on growth marketing and branding.
Elaine Mullan, Head of Marketing, Corlytics (UK)
Elaine Mullan serves as the head of marketing and business development at Corlytics, a global provider of regulatory risk intelligence solutions. Mulla has an extensive background spanning over two decades in fintech marketing, and a proven track record of delivering results-oriented marketing programs, built on identified market opportunities and customer needs.
Mullan’s core competencies include making complex technical communications engaging, content creation and development, integrated marketing programmes, and new business development. She is passionate about collaborating with cross-functional teams and stakeholders, and applying an entrepreneurial approach to marketing.
Mullan has successfully developed and launched marketing campaigns and initiatives in various regions, including Asia-Pacific (APAC), Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), South Africa, and the US, and has established a strong reputation in the fintech industry.
Harjeet Singh, Marketing Director, Finastra (UK)
Harjeet Singh is the marketing director of Finastra, bringing over two decades of experience in marketing, marketing operations, digital marketing, and marketing strategy and planning within the fintech and technology sectors. With a keen understanding of both technical and business aspects, Singh is known for his data-driven approach to marketing, with his expertise spanning various go-to-market (GTM) channels, enabling him to develop comprehensive marketing strategies with global coverage.
Throughout his career, Singh has played a crucial role in supporting C-level executives and boards on strategic projects, corporate initiatives, and brand development efforts.
Joseph Williams, Co-Founder, ZeroKey (UK)
Joseph Williams is the co-founder of ZeroKey, a web-app with a mission to integrate technology and eliminate the need for financial advisers to manually key data.
Prior to ZeroKey, Williams was the CMO of CashCalc, leading both the marketing and general day-to-day operations of the company from young startup through exit via its acquisition by FE fundinfo. During his time with CashCalc, he helped the company achieve a market-leading 44% market share, disrupting the UK financial services industry for financial advisers.
Katie Hayes, Head of Marketing, Ozone API (UK)
Katie Hayes is the head of marketing of Ozone API, leveraging over 15 years of global marketing experience across diverse industries. She specializes in scaling marketing departments, spearheading revolutionary rebrands, and enhancing marketing capabilities to drive business growth.
With a strong focus on people management, digital marketing strategy and execution, affiliate marketing, event management, keynote speaking, and workshop facilitation, Hayes is equipped with a broad skill set to lead successful marketing initiatives.
Throughout her career, Hayes has collaborated with clients in various sectors, including fintech, e-commerce, fashion, print journalism, education, travel, finance, and health and wellness.
Leonard Burger, Product Marketing Manager, Sopra Banking (UK)
Leonard Burger serves as a product marketing manager (PMM) at Sopra Banking, boasting over a decade of experience in fulfilling global and local roles across multiple countries. He is a certified PMM and holds an executive MBA from Quantic.
Burger’s professional journey has been characterized by a deep-seated passion for technology products and their strategic positioning and communication within diverse markets. He embodies a T-shaped professional archetype, possessing a broad and multi-disciplinary skill set fueled by innate curiosity and a penchant for continuous learning.
An avid consumer of information, Burger thrives on distilling vast amounts of knowledge to tackle any challenge that comes his way. He excels in discussing and presenting data and insights through compelling storytelling, leveraging his innate ability to connect with others and foster meaningful relationships.
Mariette Ferreira, CMO, PPRO (UK)
Mariette Ferreira is the CMO of PPRO, bringing a wealth of experience in marketing across the entire spectrum. As a skilled marketing professional, Ferreira is adept at implementing agile marketing strategies to drive business growth and enhance brand visibility.
A member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ferreira possesses a diverse skill set encompassing brand positioning, product launches, and lifecycle management. Her expertise includes online marketing, direct marketing, content marketing, public relations, integrated cross-platform campaigns, project management, website development, budget management, and event coordination.
Miranda McLean, CMO, Ecommpay (UK)
Miranda McLean is the CMO of Ecommpay, an international payment service provider and an UK and Europe direct bank card acquirer. At Ecommpay, McLean is responsible for determining the global strategic direction for marketing.
With more than 25 years’ B2B marketing experience, predominantly in the financial services sector, McLean is one of the most high-profile women in fintech. She has recently been recognized as one of the Standout 45 as part of the Innovate Finance Women in Fintech Powerlist.
McLean joined Ecommpay this year from Banking Circle. At Banking Circle, she joined as part of the founding team and created and launched the company’s brand identity and marketing strategy. Prior to that, she held senior leadership positions at Thomson Financial, Reuters, and Standard and Poor’s, leading and shaping marketing strategy and operations, with responsibility for multi-million-pound budgets.
Natalie Williams, Marketing Director EMEA, Airwallex (UK)
Natalie Williams is the marketing director of the EMEA at Airwallex, boasting extensive expertise as a marketing, brand, and growth leader. With a proven track record in scaling startups across the EMEA region, Williams has made significant contributions to tech, software-as-a-service (SaaS), e-commerce, fintech, and luxury product businesses, focusing on customer and community growth.
Williams has proven success developing marketing strategies for both B2B and B2C/direct to consumer (DTC) brands, and experience building and leading high performing teams of direct reports, freelancers and agencies to achieve effective campaigns and hit commercial targets in fast paced and changing environments.
Her experience spans across organic, paid, online, offline, branding, strategy, partnerships, sales, project management, growth, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, content, public relations (PR), events, campaign management, communications, relationship management and agency management.
Tom Davies, VP Marketing, Yonder (UK)
Tom Davies is the VP of marketing at Yonder, a UK credit card challenger brand.
Davies began their career in business development at Not For Sale before transitioning to a role as a customer success manager at SimpleLegal. He then moved into PMM at Wise and Monzo Bank, eventually becoming a senior product marketing manager at Monzo Bank.
Kamile Mazrime, Head of Marketing and Communications, Rockit (Lithuania)
Kamile Mazrime is the head of marketing and communications at Rockit, where she brings a wealth of expertise as a specialist in communication, public relations, branding, and events. With a background in journalism and European politics, Mazrime is passionate about empowering individuals and fostering connections between organizations and professionals.
At Rockit, Mazrime leads communication and partnership efforts, spearheading impactful projects, programs, conferences, and communication strategies.
Loic Jeanjean, Marketing Consultant and Fractional CMO (Portugal)
Loic Jeanjean is a marketing and growth consultant, and a fractional CMO for B2B startups. In this capacity, he assists companies in enhancing their marketing capabilities and achieving their pipeline and revenue goals. Jeanjean’s expertise lies in building, coaching, mentoring, and equipping marketing and growth teams to drive hyper-growth for their organizations. He collaborates closely with C-suite executives as a trusted marketing advisor, translating strategic goals into actionable marketing plans.
Jeanjean has over 18 years of extensive experience in marketing leadership roles within B2B companies across various stages of funding and growth. He has made significant contributions to several prominent companies, including Pleo and Ledger. At Pleo, he led marketing efforts across 16 European countries, overseeing a team of 20+ marketers and contributing to a revenue growth of 4x. Similarly, at Ledger, Loic played a pivotal role in creating and executing global outbound and inbound marketing strategies.
Nicolas Pinto, Head of Growth, Skaleet (France)
Nicolas Pinto is the head of growth at Skaleet, bringing extensive expertise in marketing with a track record of international success within global organizations. Pinto has collaborated closely with executive teams and management groups to define and execute local and international strategies across both B2B and B2C sectors.
Pinto is recognized as an influencer and specialist in the fintech domain, and actively engages with the fintech community on X under the handle Nicolas2Pinto. His insights and contributions have earned him recognition as one of the top fintech influencers by Onalytica in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
Owen McCall, Head of Marketing, SwissQuant (Switzerland)
Owen McCall is the head of marketing of SwissQuant, boasting over a decade of experience as a strategic marketing leader in both B2B and B2C domains across diverse industries, including fintech and Web3/blockchain. McCall holds a Master’s degree in International Law from the University of St. Gallen, complemented by several professional certifications in marketing analytics, AI/innovation, and strategic communications.
In his role at SwissQuant, McCall leads the charge in developing and executing strategic go-to-market plans, fostering collaboration across cross-functional teams, and curating impactful content. His primary focus is on driving growth and elevating brand visibility for SwissQuant, a global leader in risk software solutions and consultancy services for the financial and industrial sectors.
Radim Oulehla, Co-Founder, Fintree (Czech Republic)
Radim Oulehla is the co-founder of Fintree, a platform that leads the fintech conversation in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Oulehla is a key figure in fintech marketing, recognized for his influential work and his ability to engage a wide audience on social media, particularly LinkedIn, with insightful content on fintech and e-commerce.
Oulehla is deeply involved in the fintech community, including organizing major B2B fintech conferences and contributing to professional networks like the Czech Fintech Association and European Fintech Hub. He has earned a number of accolades and was named among the top influencers in Central and Eastern European fintech by 25.
Vanessa Schotes, CMO, Enfuce (Germany)
Vanessa Schotes is the CMO of Enfuce, boasting a distinguished career as a senior marketer with a track record of success spanning various industries.
Schotes excels in implementing results-driven marketing, communications, and brand building programs. Her specialties include marketing planning, strategic market penetration, market research, creative development, external/internal communications, full campaign management, comprehensive brand messaging, PR strategy, product development, and project leadership.
