Leading
the team
At Currencycloud we believe in empowerment and treating everyone like a leader. Below you can read about our company's executives, and the experiences they bring to make Currencycloud the great place that it is.
Barbera de Jong-Elder
Chief People Officer
Barbera has extensive experience as a Human Resources professional with in-depth expertise in leadership development, organizational evolution, talent sourcing and on- boarding. She is accustomed to handling sensitive, confidential and complex engagements for large-scale technology companies including Cisco and Juniper Networks. She has specialist skills in multi-country and multi-cultural engagements throughout Europe and the Middle East and Africa and has worked in the UK, Dubai and the US. Barbera is perfectly placed to build on our success as an award-winning employer and grow a class- leading team at Currencycloud.
Fiona Tee
Chief Financial Officer
Fiona joined Currencycloud in April 2016 with a wealth of experience in leading influential finance and technology companies. Fiona has held senior positions at large corporates such as Mastercard and KPMG, right through to start-ups and VC backed businesses such as Omnico Group and Mondex International. This experience means that Fiona has become the go-to woman for driving high growth in innovative technology start-ups. Things that bring together the strategic and commercial talents of Currencycloud are Fiona’s forte. She is also passionate about providing more “real” models, not role models, for women in finance and technology.
Mark Ledsham
Chief Operational Officer
Mark is a business leader who combines strong operational skills with financial acumen. In his own words he is a customer maniac and believes in the power of diverse multi- disciplined teams to drive customer focussed outcomes. Mark is responsible for Currencycloud’s underlying compliance and payment infrastructure as the firm continues to grow internationally.
Mike Laven
Chief Executive Officer
With nearly 30 years of experience leading a number of high-growth technology and fintech companies, Mike is renowned for his ability to build venture-backed organizations and lead them to success and profitable growth. After working for the United Nations for six years, Mike has since earned a stellar reputation as a fintech expert, with leadership positions at Infinity Financial Technology, Cohera, Coronet and Traiana. Mike joined Currencycloud in 2012, and as CEO has had a major influence on growing the company into a leader in integrated finance. Under his leadership, Currencycloud has established itself as a major player in the digital financial services revolution.
Neil Drennan
Chief Technology Officer
Neil is a strategic technology leader with strong innovation, architecture, design, development, test, system integration and support experience in rapidly evolving cloud environments. He brings in-depth knowledge of agile, waterfall and hybrid delivery methodologies to Currencycloud. Previously CTO at 10X Future Technologies, Drennan has also held roles at BBC Worldwide, Amazon and Virgin Media and is responsible for the build and development of Currencycloud’s platform and supporting technology solutions.
Richard Arundel
Chief Evangelist & Co-founder
As one of Currencycloud’s founders, Richard has played an important role in the company’s rapid growth. Having started his career at HiFX – one of the largest foreign exchange market brokers in the UK – Richard has a deep understanding of the finance and payments sector. Prior to becoming Chief Evangelist, Richard has held successive positions as GM of Currencycloud’s North America business, Sales Director, Client Relationship Director and VP Client Services at Currencycloud, helping the company increase revenue, size and scope. On his return from New York in December 2020, Richard has taken on the role of Chief Evangelist, sitting at the intersection of sales, product, marketing and growth to help drive our efforts in new and existing segments, gathering insights from front-line sales teams and the wider market, while representing Currencycloud as the market leader in embedded, cross-border solutions.
Aleks Stefanovski
Chief Strategy Officer
Aleks leads go-to-market strategy and collaboration across Visa & Currencycloud to deliver maximum value for customers. During his tenure at Currencycloud, Aleks has also driven growth-oriented projects with strategic investors (contributing to the Series E funding round and subsequent acquisition by Visa), and led the company’s successful bid for a £10m grant from the Banking Competition Remedies program to support UK SMEs. Prior to Currencycloud, Aleks was at McKinsey & Company, where he supported financial services clients on corporate strategy, digital transformation and risk management topics.
JOIN US
So — ready to join us yet? If you’re interested in solutions for your business, get in touch with one of our experts. If you’re a future Currencyclouder and interesting in joining our team, check out our available roles.