Thunes announces senior hires to lead key regions and ramp up global expansion

By Joy Dumasia

Thunes, a global cross-border payments company, announced that it had appointed four new senior executives to lead its business in strategic regions: the Asia Pacific, the Americas, Middle East and North Africa, and Greater China. These key hires come as part of Thunes’ global strategy to expand its global presence, deepen relations with local markets and localise its sales, product, and network capabilities.

• Jenna Wyer, SVP for the Americas: In the US, Jenna has over a decade of experience as an executive leader and consultant in the mobile payments and e-commerce space. Her past roles include leading Business Development, Partnerships & Payments at Recurly, and founding Vice President of Sales at Braintree.
• Simon Nelson, SVP for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA): Simon has over 20 years of leadership experience in the payments industry and is based in Dubai. Before joining Thunes, Simon was most recently the CEO of Mercury, the domestic scheme in the UAE. Previously he was SVP for the Payment Processing arm of Network International and led the growth of that organisation.
• Biren Zandani, SVP for the Asia Pacific (APAC): Biren, based in Singapore, is a recognised payments expert with over 20 years of experience in financial services, particularly B2B, B2P, and P2P payments. Before joining Thunes, Biren was the Head of APAC at Transfast, a Mastercard company, where he was in charge of generating revenue and establishing robust network partnerships.
• Daphne Huang, SVP for Greater China: Daphne, based in Beijing, brings over two decades of sales, business development, banking, and FinTech experience. Before joining Thunes, she was the Head of China for SWIFT, where she spearheaded its strategic and business development initiatives.

Aik Boon Tan, Chief Commercial Officer of Thunes, said: “We have been ramping up our efforts to piece together a best-in-class team and solidify our leadership globally. The company is now in a position to take on new challenges with an expanded leadership team. We have added four highly talented regional Senior Vice Presidents (SVPs) to complement the strong leadership we already have in Africa and Europe, who together will accelerate our growth of Thunes across the different regions where we operate. And I’m glad to highlight that half of our global SVPs now are women, as diversity in the workplace can only strengthen us as a company.”