Top 10: HR Leaders in Banking and FinTech

The fintech sector has experienced rapid growth in recent years – with HR leaders playing a crucial role in ensuring that these organisations have a people strategy in place to scale responsibly. 

These leaders are often at the forefront of organisational transformation, having to balance the demands of a high-growth environment with the need to build an inclusive, high-performance culture that can sustain that growth, 

From building new workplace initiatives to improving overall employee experience, this list highlights 10 of the most influential HR leaders in the fintech and banking sectors.

10. Meghan Welch

Company: Plaid

Revenue: US$500m

Headcount: 1,200

As Chief People Officer for Plaid, Meghan Welch is responsible for developing and executing the company’s global strategy as it scales its services. 

She leads talent acquisition, performance management, talent development, compensation, and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging initiatives in support of Paid’s plans to deepen its infrastructure and expand its European footprint. 

Meghan joined Plaid in 2022, and before that held the role of Chief Diversity Officer at Capital One, where she worked for more than 20 years.

9. Isabel Naidoo

Company: Wise

Revenue: US$1.85bn

Headcount: 5,500

Isabel Naidoo first became Chief People Officer of Wise in July 2022, leading the company’s people and workplace strategy for close to four years. 

That strategy has involved ensuring the company’s culture and values are aligned with wider business strategy as the company scales – with the company seeing a 21% year-over-year increase in active users.

Before Wise, Isabel spent more than six years in charge of Inclusion and Talent at Fidelity Information Services (FIS), responsible for building talent centres of excellence globally.

8. Brooke Nayden

Company: Adyen

Revenue: US$2.77bn

Headcount: 4,345

Adyen’s CHRO Brook Nayden comes from a background in tech, having spent her career helping companies scale through high-growth phases. 

She first joined Adyen in 2017 in its recruitment team, and progressed through the company before taking on the role of CHRO in 2023. 

In that time, the company has seen significant growth, reporting revenue growth of 22% per year on average – largely driven by enterprise-level partnerships, expansion in physical point-of-sale (POS) systems and strategic market penetration.

7. LJ Brock

Company: Coinbase

Revenue: US$7.18bn

Headcount: 4,700

LJ Brock first joined Coinbase as its Chief People Officer in 2019, overseeing the company’s people strategy as it undergoes significant transformation. 

As the crypto market grows, Coinbase has grown alongside it – securely storing around 12% of all crypto assets globally. 

In its Q4 earnings report, the company shared that total trading volume was at an all time high, up 156% year over year. 

Its people strategy has had to evolve alongside this growth, with the company developing a high-performance culture that focuses on hiring and retaining people who are passionate about “crypto and economic freedom”.

6. Suzana Kubric

Company: Nubank

Revenue: US$16.3bn

Headcount: 7,686

Suzana Kubric leads HR at Nubank as its Chief People Officer. She takes a unique approach to people management, sharing on her LinkedIn that she is “redesigning HR as a product".

This involves bringing in product managers, designers and researchers to map the employee experience in the same way Nubank approaches customer journeys. 

Through this approach, Suzana says the company is ensuring that its people remain at the centre of everything the company does as it reinvents ways of working. 

5. Caryl Hilliard

Company: Intuit

Revenue: US$18.8bn

Headcount: 18,200

Caryl Hilliard is Intuit’s Chief People and Places Officer, where she is responsible for attracting and retaining high quality talent and building an environment where employees can achieve high performance work. 

Before taking on the Chief People and Place role, Caryl spent 27 years in the company’s Intuit’s People and Places Organisation across its businesses and functions – helping to drive business outcomes and accelerate growth for the company. 

4. Sharon Doherty

Company: Lloyds Banking Group

Revenue: US$24.9bn

Headcount: 65,000

Sharon Doherty has been Chief People and Places Officer at Lloyds for more than four years, leading the company’s people strategy through what she describes as “one of the biggest transformations in UK financial services for a decade".

As a member of the executive team, she plays a key role in the company’s organisational transformation – creating a more agile model of working for the company’s people as it “reboots” for a more technologically enabled banking landscape. 

3. Isabel Cruz

Company: PayPal

Revenue: US$33.17bn

Headcount: 23,800

As Chief People Officer of PayPal, Isabel Cruz is responsible for leading the company’s efforts to attract, retain and develop leaders and the wider workforce throughout their careers at PayPal.

Isabel first joined PayPal from Walmart, where she held the role of Senior Vice President and People Leader for its Global Technology, Services and Corporate teams – leading talent strategies and people initiatives. 

This included setting up the talent strategy for multiple brands and start-ups, and the integration of the US eCommerce business into Walmart’s omnichannel US business.

2. Susan Muigai

Company: Mastercard

Revenue: US$33.94bn

Headcount: 39,800

Since joining in 2025, Chief People Officer Susan Muigai has helped lead Mastercard toward a ‘decency-first’ employee experience, which focuses on treating employees with respect, fostering inclusion and prioritising wellbeing as a business imperative.

In this role, Susan has improved the employee experience at Mastercard by expanding global mental health networks for Mastercard.

She has also continued work on its Work from Elsewhere programme, which allows employees to work remotely from any location for up to four weeks per year.

1. Kelly Mahon Tullier

Company: Visa

Revenue: US$40bn

Headcount: 34,100

Visa’s Chief People and Corporate Affairs Officer Kelly Mahon Tullier plays a key role in the company’s overall business strategy by leading its people, communications, government engagement, inclusive impact and sustainability, transformation and corporate services functions. 

At a fast-moving company such as Visa, this involved fostering a culture that prioritises impact, growth and inclusivity – helping it attract and retain top talent during a period of growth. 

In 2026, the company reported its strongest revenue growth since 2022, showing a 17% increase in revenue year-over-year. 

Prior to joining Visa, Kelly spent close to 20 years at PepsiCo, holding roles such as Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Senior Vice President and General Council for its Asia, Middle East and Africa Division.