Welcoming Terri to the board

Over the past year, we started our journey as a public company. But our mission has remained the same. Taavet and I started Wise because the international money problem was too big to ignore. Moving money across borders was slow, expensive and really hard to do. Money transfer was the first problem we set out to tackle, because people were losing billions in hidden fees.

We’ve made a lot of progress since 2011. We’re now saving people and businesses over a billion pounds in fees a year and we added ways to spend and receive money by democratising international banking. More and more people around the world now have access to the Wise account and the debit card, so we can help them save billions in the years to come.

But a lot more is happening behind the scenes. We’ve built a replacement infrastructure for correspondent banking. We’re powering the way the world moves money internationally and our Wise Platform enables that for banks and big businesses too.

We know the goalposts keep moving and people expect more and more from their financial providers, so we will continue to redefine the international money space. That’s no small feat. Over the next few years, we’ll continue to drop prices, add more bank partners, launch new features and expand our product across the world.

But we need more helping hands to tackle those challenges. That’s why we’re on the lookout for another 1000 people in the next year. So it’s only natural that we look to expand our Board of Directors too. New perspectives will accelerate our growth. Our Board helps us to keep our focus on our core mission, so we can build and deliver products that solve real problems for people, businesses and - increasingly - the financial industry as a whole.

So I’m very excited to introduce our newest Independent Non-Executive Director to the Board.

Terri Duhon

• Terri currently holds non-executive board positions at Morgan Stanley, Rathbones and was on the Board of the UK payment system CHAPS. She will bring that deep understanding of the financial industry to Wise’s Audit & Risk committee.
• A former derivatives trader, Terri is now an Associate Fellow, lecturing at Oxford University. Few people can rival her insights in international financial markets, which ​will help Wise as we scale to deliver on our mission.
• Terri has a track record of challenging the status quo. She brings a wealth of experience in pioneering new products coupled with a profound knowledge of risk. As we scale, we can rely on Terri's guidance in helping us get to the next level.

In her own words:

“The very nature of financial services has changed over the past decade and Wise has been at the forefront of that revolution. It fundamentally reinvented how money moves across borders and brought international banking to people around the world, levelling the playing field. Their transparency and commitment to financial inclusion is an objective I share. I’m delighted to join the Wise team and contribute to their mission.”

Terri’s championed issues beyond finance too, encouraging women to take up board positions and speaking to students around the world to encourage financial education, inclusion and independence. I’m excited for her to share her learnings with us and help us get closer to a gender balanced Board. Alongside our most recent joiners Clare Gilmartin and Tan Hooi Ling, she will contribute to our inclusive work environment and reflect the diverse products we have and will launch in the future.

Join me in welcoming Terri to the Board!

Onwards.