Arnd Schwierholz assumed his position as Chief Financial Officer of N26 in February 2023, and was appointed to the Management Board of N26 SE as Managing Director in September 2024. He oversees the group’s Accounting, Controlling, Finance, Tax, M&A and Investor Relations divisions. From January to March 2026, he served as Interim Co-CEO of N26.

Prior to his time at N26, Arnd was CFO and Partner at Venture Capital firm Iconical Ltd as well as CFO of global mobility provider Flix SE and CFO of AirBerlin and worked at global banking leader UBS Group for several years.

As a seasoned CFO, Arnd Schwierholz boasts extensive experience in financial management for Venture Capital and publicly traded companies alike. He is renowned as a proven expert with a strong track record in financing for technology companies, in group-wide financial steering, mergers and acquisitions, as well as in Venture Capital.

Arnd Schwierholz studied at University of Trier and Manchester School of Management. He holds a degree

Jonathan (JC) has extensive experience in financial services, the last decade leading transformational change across Transaction Banking and Payments landscapes. Currently leading global product development and delivery teams, JC has expertise in international payment flows and cross border industry regulation.

In his current role as Head of International Payments for NatWest Group, JC is responsible for building and executing the product roadmap for cross border payments. This includes understanding the future technology that will shape the payments landscape in years to come.

Previously the Head of Transformation for Payments Technology, JC has launched new products to market and built payment flow excellence into the NWG Payments Centre of Expertise.

Joy Macknight is an award-winning financial journalist and former editor of The Banker, part of the Financial Times group. Her 20-year experience spans the global banking industry, from retail through investment banking, with a focus on payments/cash management, treasury, trade and supply chain finance, technology/fintech and sustainability. She is a regular contributor to a range of publications including Trade Treasury Payments, ESG Investor, LIBF’s Financial World, and Professional Wealth Management.

Kristo is the co-founder and CEO of Wise, the global tech company building the best way to move money around the world. Prior to starting Wise, Kristo was a management consultant with Deloitte Consulting & PricewaterhouseCoopers.

He worked with European banks and insurers to modernise their processes and systems. Stunned by their inefficiency, he teamed up with Taavet Hinrikus, then Skype’s director of strategy, to develop an entirely new system for moving money across borders. Kristo was selected as one of the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2015.

Magali Van Bulck is the Head of Policy & Government Relations (EMEA) at Wise and the founder of Accept My IBAN, a platform to report IBAN discrimination which has become the source of truth on this issue for policymakers. She sits on various fintech and payments advisory committees, including the European Commission’s Payment Systems Market Expert Group, and is part of the board of the International Association of Money Transfer Networks and PayBelgium. In her role at Wise, she has been heavily focused on improving and modernising financial infrastructures and advises international bodies on the modernisation of global payments. She joined Wise in 2016 and previously worked as a journalist.

Manuel Sandhofer is the General Manager, EMEA and Brazil at Wise Platform, Wise’s global payments infrastructure for banks, financial institutions and enterprises around the world. With over 15 years of experience in financial technology and payments, Manuel leads and scales Wise Platform’s strategic partnerships, growth, and commercial strategy across EMEA and Brazil including the partnerships with Monzo, N26 and Nubank. Prior to joining Wise, he built out the European Commercial function at Nium and held senior roles at Payoneer and UniCredit.

Rachel is the Director of Product and Co-Founder of Mettle, the business bank account backed by NatWest.  She is a Chartered Management Accountant with  13  years’ experience in banking, specialising in corporate and SME businesses. 

Rachel has taken on a range of roles since Mettle’s inception, including designing the initial business model, setting up its customer operations and servicing model, and delivering Mettle’s core product to market. She is responsible for the Mettle product, overseeing journeys to support customer onboarding and managing their account, as well as ensuring the Mettle app offers the features to support small businesses to get paid, manage their taxes and understand how their business is doing.

She strives to put customers first, and continuously understand their needs to develop user-focused outcomes, while being commercially focused. She’s passionate about using technology to modernise banking and finance, bringing it in line with the innovations seen in other areas of our lives.

Rachelle is responsible for the global Financial Institutions and Correspondent Banking sales teams, generating $250MM+ to the Bank through the full suite of Global Transaction Banking products and services from Cash Management and Cross-Border payments to Trade Finance and Deposits.

Rachelle has 15+ years of banking experience across Sales, Correspondent Banking, Structured Finance, and Risk Management from Scotiabank and Royal Bank of Scotland. 

Rachelle’s role includes leading sales and relationship management teams across the full spectrum of Financial Institutions from global Banks, through Insurance companies, Fintechs and Payment Service Providers. 

Rachelle is on the Advisory Board of Women in Payments, providing guidance and input to their global strategy as well as the Canada Symposium program. 

Rachelle holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from UofT and an MBA from Schulich School of Business at York University. 

Steve Naudé is the Global Managing Director of Wise Platform, Wise’s global payments infrastructure for banks, financial institutions and enterprises around the world. Wise Platform provides these organisations with the capabilities, technology and network to enable fast, secure and cost-effective international payments for their customers. Previously, Steve has worked on payments international expansion, as well as direct connections to payment schemes such as UK Faster Payments and Swift.

Till Wirth is the Global Head of Product at Wise Platform, Wise’s global payments infrastructure for banks, financial institutions and enterprises around the world. He has over ten years of experience designing and implementing payment solutions across a range of companies. Starting out at the UK Government, Till spent nearly five years building the government’s payment platform. From there, he spent three years at TrueLayer, a global open banking platform, before joining Wise Platform as Head of Product. At Wise, Till leads the Product team to build solutions for banks, online platforms and enterprise customers.