Stripe Names Louise Smith as Chair of UK Board

Fazzaco learned that Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for businesses, has announced the appointment of Louise Smith as the company's Chair of the UK Board of Directors.

Louise's appointment comes as the company nears its first decade in the UK. She brings with 25 years experience of digital and data transformation in financial services industry. As seen on her Linkedin profile, Louise currently holds various leadership roles in companies including WTW and OneBanks. Moreover, she also serves as Chair of the Board of Innovate Finance, the independent not-for-profit industry body representing the UK's global FinTech community, as well as HMT Fintech Envoy at HM Treasury, the UK Government's economic and finance ministry.

Prior to this, Lloyd's utilised her services as Chief Digital Officer from January 2020 to November 2021. During her tenure, she has been shaping the strategy and delivering the organisations digital future. Earlier in her career, Louise also spent nearly nine years with RBS. Her career began at Barclays, where she most recently worked as Chief of Staff of UK Retail Banking.

"I'm delighted to be working with the incredible Stripe team and board as we go into 2023. Stripe have established themselves as a critical part of our Financial Services community over the last 10 years, delivering better for customers with brilliant people. It's an absolute privilege to be a part of this chapter," said Louise.

As Fazzaco reported this month, Stripe has launched its own fiat-to-crypto on-ramp​ in order to allow clients to exchange dollars for cryptocurrencies. This new transaction solution from Stripe takes on the form of a widget that can be integrated with various DeFi platforms. Stripe's decision to move further into the crypto market could help DeFi become more accessible to mainstream consumers at a time when centralized exchanges are under the microscope.