Airwallex strengthens global executive team with key senior hires

MELBOURNE, Australia, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Airwallex, one of the fastest growing global fintech platforms, today announced two senior appointments to support the significant expansion across its business as the company extends its global footprint. Collectively, these senior executives bring close to four decades of multinational HR and finance expertise, further bolstering Airwallex's global executive team.

These key appointments follow a period of record business growth for Airwallex since reaching unicorn status in 2019. Recently, the company announced its US$200 million Series E fundraising round, valuing the company at US$4 billion. 

The senior hires are:

• Joanne Chin, SVP Global Head of People and Talent: Former Chief People Officer at Kraft Heinz Asia Pacific, Joanne joined Airwallex as Global Head of People and Talent based in Melbourne. In this new role, Joanne will spearhead Airwallex's global HR team to help strengthen the company's culture and values and build a strong employer brand to attract, retain and develop its growing workforce. Joanne has also worked at global companies such as Google and Waymo in London and San Francisco. Joanne started her career as a corporate lawyer for five years before moving into HR.
• David Bicknell, Global SVP Finance: After managing a large international finance team at Facebook, David recently returned to Melbourne after seven years in San Francisco to take the helm of Airwallex's global finance division. At Airwallex, David will oversee Airwallex's financial planning, and provide strategic and financial advice to the executive team. Prior to Facebook, David held finance leadership roles at Twitter and Intuit, supporting engineering and product teams. David started his career in the investment banking division at Macquarie, where he worked for nine years.

"I am delighted to welcome Joanne and David to our global executive team. Both bring invaluable experience and expertise to support Airwallex's accelerated growth and innovation across the entire business," said Jack Zhang, Co-founder and CEO at Airwallex. "With our rapid global expansion, investing in our people and culture as well as driving business efficiencies is important to our continued success. These are exciting times for us at Airwallex, and I am confident our new senior hires will create an immediate and lasting impact in our business and for our people."

Airwallex has nearly doubled its headcount in 2021 and employs almost 1,000 employees today in over 20 locations globally. The company has invested in building breadth and depth in its global executive team with recent high-profile executive appointments of its Chief Legal, Compliance and Risk Officer, SVP Brand, Communications and Partnerships, and GM of EMEA. 

About Airwallex

Airwallex is a global fintech payment platform with a mission to empower businesses of all sizes to grow without borders, and by doing so, contribute to the global economy. With technology at its core, Airwallex has built a financial infrastructure and platform to help businesses manage payments, treasury and expenses globally, without the constraints of the traditional financial system. Airwallex has secured over US$700 million since it was established in 2015, and is backed by world-leading investors. Today, the business operates with a team of almost 1,000 employees across 20 locations globally. For more information, please visit www.airwallex.com.

Additional Quotes for Media

Joanne Chin, SVP Global Head of People and Talent "Building a phenomenal culture with strong leadership and talented, passionate people is what I love doing. Airwallex has seen incredible success since it was founded, and I could not be more excited to have the opportunity to help Airwallex scale even further by building a culture that inspires our people and accelerates our mission."

David Bicknell, Global SVP Finance "Airwallex's global payments infrastructure helps increase market access for businesses of all sizes around the world. I'm very excited to be joining Airwallex and supporting this vital mission. In my new role, I look forward to working closely with the Airwallex's executive team to drive the company's continued business growth."