Strategic Co-Pilot for B2B Tech & Fintech Founders | I Help You Scale Without Chaos | AI & Data Delivery at Radsody

I am a fintech founder turned Independent Non-Executive Director, working with boards, founders, and investors navigating growth in regulated and high-velocity environments.

Over 15+ years, I have built and scaled fintech and SaaS businesses across the UK, Europe, and MENA — from early-stage startups to regulated financial institutions. My experience spans digital banking, payments, embedded finance, and financial infrastructure, with a strong focus on translating strategy into durable execution.

I currently serve as an Independent Non-Executive Director and board advisor to fintechs and financial institutions, bringing an operator’s perspective to governance, risk, and growth decisions.

Current and recent roles include:
- IFC-nominated Independent Director, TBC Bank Uzbekistan
- Fintech Advisory Board Member, PayU
- Executive Board Director, Fiat Republic

Earlier in my career, I was a founder and operator:
- Founding team member at HelloFresh (NYSE: HFG)
- Launched and scaled the UK arm of digital bank Fidor, supporting its sale to Groupe BPCE
- Co-founded and scaled a regulated payments platform (Fiat Republic)
- Led revenue growth in multi-million-dollar B2B SaaS businesses

I am also the co-author of Embedded Finance (Wiley, 2022).

In the boardroom, I help teams bring clarity to complexity and turn strategy into scalable outcomes.

Sophie Guibaud 👾

First day at IMD for the Mastering Board Governance programme, and genuinely excited to be here.

Didier Cossin defines Governance as 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬.

In real life, those decisions need to be made with incomplete information, competing priorities, and real consequences.

The best directors I know never stop sharpening that skill. The landscape - AI, ESG, regulation, stakeholder expectations - is shifting faster than ever.

So here I am. Taking notes, in a room full of people who take this responsibility seriously.

That's exactly where I want to be.

Sophie Guibaud

Independent Non-Executive Director & Board Advisor | Financial Services

There’s a moment in board discussions where everything has been analysed.

The numbers work. The deck is coherent. The downside has been modelled.

And still, something either sits right… or it doesn’t.

People call that “gut feeling.”

At board level, it isn’t instinct. It’s compressed experience.

It comes from reading the full pack.
From understanding how the business actually makes money.
From knowing your own biases.
From not needing to win the room.

Ego is expensive in governance.

The intuition that matters is pattern recognition + preparation + integrity, especially when pressure builds, and consensus feels convenient.

That feeling isn’t emotion.

It’s what’s left after you’ve done the work.

I recently joined the 100 Women In Finance's 100WFinTech Directory as part of the #100WFinTech Global Initiative.

As fintech matures, the conversation is shifting from pure innovation to questions of governance, risk, capital discipline and long-term value creation. 

Communities that bring together senior operators, investors and board members across financial services are increasingly important in shaping that evolution.

I was on the Fintech Insider podcast this week to dig into something many of us have noticed but not quite put together the way the team at 11:FS has done: the banking battlefield hasn't just evolved, it's gone vertical.

The original Banking Battlefield they framed back then was genuinely useful when it was created. 

But the battlefield it describes? That's not the one we're fighting on anymore.

So we took the time this week to revisit it.

The challengers who everyone wrote off are now posting billion-pound profits, helping write the rules for the next generation of payments infrastructure, and finally getting their UK banking licence (congrats Revolut!).

The real competitive pressure has shifted underground. It's no longer about who has the best app. It's about who controls the infrastructure underneath.

Primacy gets you the customer. Infrastructure keeps them.

We should also be honest: incumbents got a break. High interest rates bought them time: margins recovered, pressure eased, transformation felt less urgent.

That window is closing.

And most incumbents are finding transformation harder than expected.

Not because the will isn't there, it is.

But because the constraint was never really the technology. It's culture and governance, and that starts at the board.

You cannot navigate this battlefield without commercial and product expertise at the top. Not just risk and compliance - though that matters - but people who genuinely understand what it means to compete in this environment.

Without that, transformation is just expensive theatre.

Have a listen, would love to know what resonates 👇
🎧 https://lnkd.in/gcPZ5nGf

Financial services boards are packed with experience. But is it the right kind?

Having spent much of my career working with fintech operators and now spending more time in financial services governance, the difference in operating perspectives is striking.

Across the industry, many bank and payments boardrooms are rich in decades of risk, regulatory, and traditional banking expertise. That experience is invaluable and necessary.

But when career paths around the table look too similar, it can quietly shape how the future is evaluated.

Meanwhile, the industry itself is being reshaped by digital platforms, fintech operators, and entirely new customer expectations.

This is where board skills mapping matters.

When boards honestly assess the expertise around the table against where the institution needs to go (not just where it has been), the gaps often become clear.

Innovation.
Growth.
Digital transformation.
Customer experience.
Technology-led operating models.

These capabilities are still less common around many financial services board tables.

What someone with a fintech or startup operating background brings to a board isn’t disruption for its own sake. It’s a different lens.

In practice, that perspective often changes the questions that get asked in the boardroom.

• 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞. In high-growth environments, slow decisions don’t just cost time, they cost relevance.
• 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. Fintech operators are often used to framing decisions through the lens of the end-to-end customer journey.
 • 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. Innovation requires bets that won’t all pay off.

The financial institutions that will lead the next decade are already expanding the range of operating experience around the table.

Because boards don’t just govern the present.

Does the expertise around the table reflect where the institution has been, or where it needs to go?

The Bancolombia outage last week has reopened an important conversation, one that goes well beyond a single institution.

When payments move in real time, interdependence increases, and fragility surfaces faster.

This isn't about blame but about architecture.

A few things stand out from a board governance perspective:

𝐀𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐲. 
Uptime is trust, not only an IT metric. For customers, it's whether salaries arrive. For boards, operational resilience deserves the same seriousness as capital and liquidity.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬. 
Core systems. Cloud providers. Vendors. Instant rails. We tend to assess risk at the institutional level, but increasingly, the real exposure sits in the interconnections.

𝐒𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 
What happens if a major participant in a real-time rail is down for 72 hours? How is liquidity managed? Who coordinates communication? How is contagion contained? Resilience is not a framework. It's a rehearsed capability.

And the stack is expanding.

Stablecoins now operate as parallel settlement layers. They add optionality, particularly cross-border, but introduce new concentration points at issuer and protocol level.

Risk doesn't disappear. It migrates.

The question for boards and regulators is no longer simply: "Is our institution resilient?"

It's: "Is the stack resilient?"
Institution. Rail. Vendor. Issuer. Protocol.

Digital finance will never be risk-free. Resilience must be designed, not assumed. And at the board level, design is governance.

The recent debate in Colombia, highlighted by Marcel van Oost and sparked by comments from Marcela Torres of Nubank Colombia, points to a broader systemic issue.

Open article: Nu Flags Systemic Risk After Bancolombia Hits Bre-B Rails by connectingthedotsinfin.tech

Nu Flags Systemic Risk After Bancolombia Hits Bre-B Rails

I spend my career shaping how financial regulation responds to emerging technology, because the rules we design today define tomorrow’s markets.

Over the past years, I have worked across Europe and the Middle East on financial services regulation, compliance, and policy, with a particular focus on digital assets, DLT, AI, and new market structures.

Alongside my core roles, my work and international speaking engagements have taken me well beyond these regions, from Japan to the Caribbean, reflecting both the global nature of emerging technologies and my personal commitment to engaging wherever meaningful regulatory conversations are taking place. I hope to continue doing so, one country at a time, with the aim of making a thoughtful and positive impact.

My career has moved between regulators, financial institutions, and market infrastructure providers, giving me a practical, end to end view of how regulation is written, interpreted, implemented, and, at times, tested in real operating environments. I am particularly passionate about regulating emerging technology in a way that enables innovation while preserving market integrity, stability, and trust.

More recently, I have been deepening my focus on artificial intelligence, particularly its governance and regulatory implications. I have also started trying to understand quantum technologies. Progress there is slower and humbling, but I remain optimistic, quantum is clearly playing the long game.

Beyond my professional work, I am committed to advancing women’s leadership, and to demonstrating, through action and visibility, the depth, capability, and global contribution of Arab women, beyond the narrow stereotypes that too often persist.

What drives me is curiosity, responsibility, and the challenge of helping institutions navigate change thoughtfully. If the conversation involves emerging technology, regulation, and how innovation can scale responsibly in the real world, I am usually very happy to be part of it.

Maha Al-Saadi

🔥Tokenised Money: Interoperability, Programmability and Regulatory Trends🔥

📝( 17 Feb) New report maps the present and future of tokenised money by Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Cambridge Judge Business School, in collaboration with Financial Innovation for Impact (Fii) , examines the evolving market and regulatory landscape of tokenised money.

💰 The study analyses the evolving landscape of privately issued #tokenised money, the underlying infrastructures and the regulatory trends shaping its development.

💰 Drawing on 2️⃣1️⃣ interviews and extensive desk-based research, the report documents emerging use cases, examines interoperability and programmability, and assesses the enabling and constraining influence of regulation across jurisdictions.

💰 An exploratory 2️⃣-layered classification framework is introduced, mapping instruments across the nature of the claim, its backing, form, and access, alongside business models, technical architecture, and legal and governance properties.

💰 4️⃣ instrument categories are identified: 1️⃣central bank digital money, 
2️⃣commercial bank claims or deposits, 
3️⃣pre-paid fiat representations (fiat-backed stablecoins), and 
4️⃣fiat-anchored asset positions.

💰 4️⃣ main use cases have emerged: 
1️⃣cross-border payments and settlement; 2️⃣treasury and liquidity management; 
3️⃣trade finance digitisation; and 
4️⃣ capital markets infrastructure.

💰 Stablecoins are used in decentralised finance, crypto exchanges and crossborder payments; tokenised deposits support institutional treasury management; tokenised money market funds compete where yield-bearing features are attractive.

💰 Adoption follows a gradual path, while regulatory and non-regulatory barriers remain, though the pace of adoption is accelerating.

💰 #Interoperability is a critical barrier, requiring cross-border efficiency, cross-platform connectivity, cross-asset integration, regulatory harmonisation and governance coordination.

💰 #Programmability acts as an accelerator of adoption, enabling trade-finance automation, parametric insurance and AI-driven commerce and treasury optimisation.

💰 AML/CFT and illicit finance risks, cybersecurity and operational resilience, financial stability, and risks to monetary sovereignty are top regulatory priorities, with fragmentation across jurisdictions persisting.

💰 Regulatory attention is shifting from issuance to use in payments, monetary policy implications, and public permissionless blockchains, as policymakers seek to enable innovation while safeguarding safety, stability and integrity.

https://lnkd.in/ewWAi8J4

Regulatory Affairs · Digital Assets · AI · Regulatory Compliance · FinTech · Cross Border Advocacy · Financial Services Policy · Market Infrastructure (Views expressed in a personal capacity)

Tokenized money

🌙In the spirit of Ramadan, I thought I would share that the Global Islamic Fintech Report 2025/26 

☪️Produced by Elipses and DinarStandard, in collaboration with the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) Authority, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and DDCAP Group™ the report highlights that:
✨ Islamic fintech transaction volume reached USD 198 billion in 2024/25
✨ Projected to grow to USD 341 billion by 2029
✨ Expected CAGR of 11.5%, slightly exceeding global fintech growth (~11.0%)

☪️ Leading Markets by Transaction Volume
✨ 16 countries recorded Islamic fintech volumes above USD 1 billion
✨ Top markets: 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia  🇮🇷 Iran 🇲🇾 Malaysia  🇦🇪 UAE 🇮🇩 Indonesia 🇰🇼 Kuwait 🇹🇷 Türkiye 🇧🇩 Bangladesh 🇵🇰 Pakistan 🇶🇦 Qatar

☪️ Top Islamic Fintech Ecosystems (GIFT Index 2025/26)
✨ Leading ecosystems: 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia  🇲🇾 Malaysia 🇦🇪 UAE  🇮🇩 Indonesia  🇧🇭 Bahrain  🇬🇧 United Kingdom 🇶🇦 Qatar 🇵🇰 Pakistan 🇰🇼 Kuwait  🇸🇬 Singapore
✨ Rankings based on 19 indicators across:  Talent, Regulation ,Infrastructure ,Market & Ecosystem and Capital

☪️ Key Industry Challenges
✨ Limited access to capital
✨ Regulatory compliance complexity
✨ Limited customer education and awareness
✨ Challenges in geographic expansion
✨ High customer acquisition costs

☪️ Sector Development
✨ Global database includes 484 Islamic fintech firms
✨ Continued expansion across regions and sub-sectors
✨ Increasing institutional and investor interest
✨ 30 firms highlighted as industry leaders

Exec Summary GIFT

⚡️(6 March) International Monetary Fund  Stablecoin Shocks Eugenio Cerutti , Melih Firat , Martina Hengge and Takaaki Sagawa

⚠️The authors created innovative metrics to evaluate shocks related to stablecoins and their influence on U.S. financial markets.

⚠️They combined a daily dataset focused on stablecoin news with fluctuations in the market capitalization of USDC and USDT.

⚠️ They employed high-frequency monitoring and advanced techniques, applying heteroskedasticity-aware identification through event-study and SVAR-IV frameworks.

⚠️ Shifts in stablecoin demand result in:
 1️⃣Ongoing reductions in short-term Treasury yields.
2️⃣A decline in the value of the U.S. dollar.
3️⃣Gradual impacts on cryptocurrency and equity markets.

⚠️Varied Impacts
1️⃣Payment service providers see advantages from rising stablecoin usage.
 2️⃣Banks, particularly smaller and community institutions, exhibit no signs of risk from disintermediation.

⚠️Emphasizes the significance of stablecoin demand as a new mechanism for influencing asset markets.

https://lnkd.in/eQXAPStP

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The Battle

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Maha Al-Saadi

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