These key appointments follow a period of record business growth for Airwallex since reaching unicorn status in 2019. Recently, the company announced its US$200 million Series E fundraising round, valuing the company at US$4 billion.

The senior hires are:

• Joanne Chin, SVP Global Head of People and Talent: Former Chief People Officer at Kraft Heinz Asia Pacific, Joanne joined Airwallex as Global Head of People and Talent based in Melbourne. In this new role, Joanne will spearhead Airwallex’s global HR team to help strengthen the company’s culture and values and build a strong employer brand to attract, retain and develop its growing workforce. Joanne has also worked at global companies such as Google and Waymo in London and San Francisco. Joanne started her career as a corporate lawyer for five years before moving into HR.

• David Bicknell, Global SVP Finance: After managing a large international finance team at Facebook, David recently returned to Melbourne after seven years in San Francisco to take the helm of Airwallex’s global finance division. At Airwallex, David will oversee Airwallex’s financial planning, and provide strategic and financial advice to the executive team. Prior to Facebook, David held finance leadership roles at Twitter and Intuit, supporting engineering and product teams. David started his career in the investment banking division at Macquarie, where he worked for nine years.

“I am delighted to welcome Joanne and David to our global executive team. Both bring invaluable experience and expertise to support Airwallex’s accelerated growth and innovation across the entire business,” said Jack Zhang, Co-founder and CEO at Airwallex. “With our rapid global expansion, investing in our people and culture as well as driving business efficiencies is important to our continued success. These are exciting times for us at Airwallex, and I am confident our new senior hires will create an immediate and lasting impact in our business and for our people.”

Airwallex has nearly doubled its headcount in 2021 and employs almost 1,000 employees today in over 20 locations globally. The company has invested in building breadth and depth in its global executive team with recent high-profile executive appointments of its Chief Legal, Compliance and Risk Officer, SVP Brand, Communications and Partnerships, and GM of EMEA.