The Fintech and Payments Advisory Network (TFPA) has announced a new CEO, COO and Executive Chair during this year’s Money 20/20. TFPA is an advisory organisation for the financial services sector, which is spearheaded by a network of senior executives in Payments, Cards, Fintech and Banking. Now, three industry veterans have been recruited for its senior team as part of its growth journey.
Gregor Dobbie, former CEO of Vocalink (a Mastercard company), has assumed the role of the company’s new CEO. With nearly 30 years experience in the financial services industry, he was integral to Vocalink’s growth and its acquisition by Mastercard. Roger Bracken takes the role of Executive Chair and Steve Wright will serve as the COO.
Commenting on his appointment, Gregor states: "From firsthand experience I can testify that the advisory market in the Fintech sector is underserved. There are not enough practitioners who have the skills to support CEOs with running complex organisations in a highly regulated market and that’s a big reason why we see so many Fintechs fail. This is a gap that we fill and we have done this by attracting an incredible team of leaders to join TFPA."
"Our refreshing approach is about de-coding, conceptualising but then crucially delivering strategy alongside the business leaders," adds Gregor who also has a breadth of knowledge on topics such as account to account payments, open banking, fraud, regulation and compliance and cross-border payments.
Executive Chair Roger Bracken remarked on Gregor's appointment: "Having Gregor as our CEO means with his incredible vision and industry network, we are able to build on the solid principles of delivering pragmatic advice to our clients and drive significant global growth, moving towards our vision of being the leading trusted advisor in our space."
Gregor plans to focus on extending and developing TFPA Associate network which has seen a growth of nearly 300% in the past six months attracting many elite industry leaders. This has increased the organisation’s capacity, capability and geographical coverage and provides clients with exceptional knowledge and experience. He also highlighted the US as a key strategic market for TFPA.
In tandem with his TFPA responsibilities, Gregor also serves as the Executive Chairman of digital loyalty provider Loyalzoo and a board member of Onebanx. Testifying to TFPA’s value, Mike Hopewell, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Ciklum, a custom product & software engineering organisation, stated "TFPA have provided us with invaluable insight around our commercial strategies and market positioning enabling us to move up the value chain with our clients."
Joining Gregor on the leadership team are Roger Bracken and Steve Wright. Roger has held leadership roles in several international payments technology companies and is currently an advisor at Vitruvian Partners, an investment firm. He is also chair of an early stage fintech company, WyzePay. Steve Wright, with a long record of sales leadership in payments technology, has led divisions at Xerox, ACI, Fujitsu and NCR and spent the last decade shaping payments start-ups and scale-ups.
TFPA offers a focused set of services to its clients based on past experiences and aims to make a significant difference in the industry. The senior team's extensive network of leadership in major global corporates and key challengers within Payments, Cards, Fintech and Banking enables them to spearhead commercial, product and technical operations effectively. The refreshed leadership team underlines TFPA's ambition to reset the Fintech advisory market.