Team & Advisory Board
2026-2027
Meet the team and advisory board driving Black in Fintech's mission to change the face of fintech through community, advocacy, and action.
Core Team
Martha Serwaah-Mensah
Programme Manager, Fisher Investments (UK) | Founder, Duafe Limited
Claudette Archer
Freelance Marketing Strategist
Azeez Soetan
Senior Product Marketer, TrueLayer
Kolade Afode
Software Engineer, Starling Bank
Adellet Sarkis
Strategic Partnerships Manager, Guavapay
Abdulhafeez Babatunde
Product Manager, Sokin
Arlyne Chinyanganya
Accountant & Founder, Roots to Froots
Seun (Shay) Odekunle
Generalist, Jenzy
Samuel Afolabi
Sales Manager, OpenPayd
Yao Baku
Senior Product Manager - Global Payment Systems, GD
Advisory Board
Perpetua Gitungo
Compliance Director for LATAM and MEA, Wise
Iana Vidal
Head of UK Policy, Block
Anthony David King
Founder of ADK, & Fintech Investor
Kaley Addo
Head of UK Operations, Upvest
Fumbi Banjoko
Senior Director, Global Sales Development, Visa Direct
Founder
Valerie Kontor
Founder, Black in Fintech
Valerie Kontor is an ecosystem builder and product specialist working at the intersection of finance, technology, and inclusion. She is the Founder of Black in Fintech, a platform connecting talent, founders, and operators across the fintech ecosystem, with a focus on increasing representation and driving more inclusive innovation.
Alongside building Black in Fintech, Valerie works in wealth management, specialising in credit products. She brings experience across banking, fintech scale-ups, and startup advisory, with a career rooted in product management and financial innovation.
Valerie has gained recognition across the fintech ecosystem, having been featured on the Women in Fintech Powerlist for three consecutive years (2022–2024), and named an Inspiring Fifty Women in Tech 2025 Award winner.
Her work focuses on designing and scaling financial products that improve access, usability, and outcomes for new customer segments and underserved communities. Her perspective is shaped by both her professional experience and her role within the ecosystem, with a core belief that the most impactful innovation happens at the intersection of inclusion and product.
Founder's Note
Black in Fintech was built from a simple but important observation. Innovation in financial services has moved fast, but not always fairly. The people most impacted by financial systems are often the least represented in shaping them.
I've experienced that gap first-hand. Walking into rooms and counting how many people looked like me. Seeing brilliant talent overlooked. Watching products scale globally without always reflecting the communities they serve. Black in Fintech exists to change that.
What started as a community has grown into a platform connecting talent, ideas, and opportunity across the UK, with ambitions to expand across Europe and Africa. We're creating space for conversations that don't always happen on the main stage, and building pathways for people to not just enter fintech, but to lead within it.
Because inclusion isn't just about representation. It's about influence. It's about who gets to build, who gets funded, and whose perspectives shape the future of money.
We're still early in our journey, but the ambition is clear — to build an ecosystem where the future of finance reflects the communities it serves.