Cornerstone FS Secures James Hickman as New Chief Executive Officer

Fazzaco learned that Cornerstone FS, the cloud-based provider of currency risk management and international payments, has named James Hickman as its Chief Executive Officer. The appointment will be effectively on 12 September 2022.

James brings over 19 years' experience within the payments industry to the company. Most recently, he was Chief Revenue Officer at Dublin-based fintech business, Fire Financial Services Ltd.

Prior to that, James served as Chief Commercial Officer at AIM-quoted Equals plc, responsible for the oversight of sales and business development across all business units. Earlier, he was Managing Director at a privately held card & payments business, Caxton FX Ltd.

Commenting on the appointment, Chairman Elliott Mannis, said:"James brings a wealth of industry experience and excellent strategic and leadership skills to Cornerstone, and I am delighted that he will be our new Chief Executive Officer. He has impressed the Board with his clarity of vision, breadth of knowledge and his strong client-centric mindset. The Board believes he is a great fit for Cornerstone, with the combination of skills and experience to lead the business through its next strategic phase."

James Hickman added:"I am delighted to be joining Cornerstone at a very exciting time in the Group's development. I see great potential in the business from its proprietary technology to its regulatory permissions. It is already delivering an exceptional service to its SME customers and the scalable platform is ideally positioned to add further product capability. I have been impressed by the quality of our people, and the strength of our culture and our client relationships, which provide strong foundations on which to build in the years ahead. I believe we have an exciting future in front of us as we capture growth opportunities in payment services and deliver value for our shareholders."

In the first half of 2022, Cornerstone FS' total unaudited revenue was approximately £1.9 million, up 129 percent compared to the same period in 2021. Moreover, the group disclosed that the revenue generated by clients directly continued to increase significantly during H1 2022 to approximately 75% compared with 28% for the first half of the previous year.