Nicola has been passionate about building and scaling businesses for over 25 years, from the early days of the consumer internet to today. Her career spans roles as Co-Founder, Managing Director, Investor, as well as Corporate Innovation & Transformation Specialist. Her industry focus includes FinTech, FMCG & Media. She lived and worked in the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, France and is now based in her hometown, Berlin. She is currently CEO and Managing Director at Qwist the leading independent European Open Banking platform provider, with key markets in DACH, Spain and Portugal. Prior to this, she was Chief Growth Officer and Managing Director at OptioPay, an Open Banking Fin-/AdTech company, as well as in a leading growth and innovation role at PayPal in Europe. Nicola fundamentally believes that we need to use technology to democratise financial services. Open Data and data authorship, distributed data models and innovative embedded finance models are one way to move towards a more equitable future. Nicola is passionate about creating positive impact in the world. She holds board positions in for-profit social impact businesses (Vested Ltd. among others), supporting female founders as well as solar energy company Wattz. She is also an advisor to impact accelerators and funds like Village Capital and Planet A Ventures