GoCardless bolsters its ESG commitment efforts with two senior hires

By Joy Dumasia

GoCardless, a global FinTech in account-to-account payments, has appointed Ben Knight as Head of Environmental Sustainability and Lena Tailor as Director of Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) in a move that strengthens its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) commitments.

Knight, who joins GoCardless from the space and telecommunications company OneWeb, will lead FinTech’s drive towards reaching net zero as a founding member of the Tech Zero initiative. His remit includes measuring GoCardless’ environmental impact, creating a reliable roadmap for reducing the company’s carbon footprint, and embedding sustainability across the business, engaging and empowering all employees to get involved.

Tailor joins GoCardless from innocent drinks, where she spent nine years in various roles driving their People and Culture agenda, with a recent focus on diversity and inclusion. At GoCardless, Tailor will spearhead the company’s efforts around D&I in a structured and strategic way. This involves assessing GoCardless’ current practices, defining clear D&I objectives and a strategy to achieve them, and working hand-in-hand with the FinTech’s existing four Employee Resources Groups that advocate for inclusion based on gender and sexual orientation, ethnicity and disability and neurodiversity.

Eva Ducruezet, Chief People Officer at GoCardless, said: “As we continue to scale quickly and internationally, attracting a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive environment where employees from all walks of life can thrive will be key to our success. I am thrilled to have Lena on board to lead our D&I efforts, given her strategic approach. The focus she’ll bring will be crucial to helping us drive meaningful change.”

Recently, IBS Intelligence reported that Fiskl, the global mobile-first financial management and accounting solution, announced a partnership with GoCardless, a leader in account-to-account payments, and the launch of recurring direct debit payments for Fiskl customers.