I am thrilled to share that Chaser's Chief Executive Officer, Sonia Dorais, is a finalist for the Outstanding Leader in Collections award at Credit Strategy's Leadership Awards 2023.

The Leadership Awards celebrate resilience, innovation, and creativity in leadership, and award those demonstrating leadership across the full spectrum of credit and financial services.

Being shortlisted for this award is a real testament to Sonia's outstanding leadership at Chaser. Since becoming CEO in January 2021, the business has achieved phenomenal results in terms of growth, product development, and company culture.

Outstanding Leader in Collections

Sonia is CEO at Chaser, a tech business and the highest-rated accounts receivables software provider, helping businesses around the world put an end to late payments.

She's been listed in The Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology Europe and was shortlisted as CEO of the Year by Management Today.

Sonia regularly speaks on panels on women in technology and finance:

• She hosted an event for Global Treasurer (the leading global knowledge resource for 65,000+ treasury and cash management professionals).
• Sonia was invited to speak on two Accountex London 2022 panels (the largest trade show for accounting/payment professionals.)

Sonia also regularly speaks on women’s leadership and the representation of women in fintech, for example, Choose To Challenge 100.

Sonia’s passion for helping SMBs reduce late payments was the inspiration behind Chaser's restructure, new direction, and consequently business growth.

Sonia oversaw the launches of features, services, and integrations to meet end-user needs, and facilitate Chaser’s growth.

Under Sonia's leadership, Chaser launched its first service lines; debt collections and outsourced credit control. Both integrate with Chaser’s software. To date, Chaser's debt collections service has helped businesses to recover £500,000+ debt that would've otherwise been written-off. The release of Chaser's Payment portal has now helped users to speed-up £2million+ in payments.

By using these new features, users have achieved astonishing results. “We’ve reduced debtors from £100,000+ to approximately £40,000” - Ravi, Director, Wren Accountancy.

Sonia embodies Chaser’s vision to create a world where all businesses have the confidence that they will get paid for their work, and under her leadership, Chaser has helped businesses worldwide to chase and recover over billions in late payments.

Through Sonia’s vision and leadership, thousands of businesses around the world have been able to reduce late payments and focus on their business growth.

Sonia has spearheaded the launch of multiple features to help Chaser’s end-users reduce late payments and improve cashflow.

She has managed all this whilst driving staff development and welfare at Chaser including:

• Developed and collaborated on an organizational chart including a five-year vision and progression plan for every employee.
• Upskilled staff through company-wide training with chartered institutions and accreditations such as from the ACCA and CICM.
• Arranged company onsites both virtually (during COVID-19) and in-person for the fully-remote team to meet for team building, activities, and social events.I
• Introduced Friday afternoons off to promote work-life balance.

Sonia has achieved fantastic results in terms of leading solutions that solve end-user needs through collections technology, improving business revenues, and staff development.

Sonia has achieved all of this whilst working in the fintech sector - one of the industries where women are most underrepresented.  Only 30% of the fintech workforce is female, and furthermore, just 13% of fintechs are currently led by women.

In addition to the outstanding results achieved at Chaser and in her previous roles, Sonia has helped pave the way for women looking to enter the financial technology and credit management technology industry. Sonia stands as an incredible example of the positive impacts female directors can have on fintech businesses.

The Leadership Awards 2023

I am thrilled to see Sonia's achievements recognised by being shortlisted for this award, and look forward to celebrating with fellow finalists at the awards ceremony. The Leadership Awards 2023 will take place on the 16th of March at Hilton London Bankside. See full details and join the celebrations here.

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