Andrew Boyajian

Your Story:

I studied marketing and Spanish in university, but ended up focusing on payments at my first job and I haven’t looked back. The aspect about payments that I love is that it's localised, both in tech and behaviour, by the immediate culture and consumer attitudes toward money.

Throughout my career, I’ve been attracted to companies that are using technology for good or to better experiences. I worked at Eventbrite, using online tech to enable offline connections at events all over the world. And at Kickstarter we used our tech to share artistic value and create inclusion in the creative process. At Wise, we looked at how to use our platform to ensure the value of remittances makes it to where it is needed most. And recently at JP Morgan, we worked at finding how alternative payments can help reach underbanked populations.

Now at Tink, we are exploring how open banking can increase consumer choice, reshaping banking and making it more accessible, inclusive, understandable and useful – to anyone, anywhere.

Some career highlights that come to mind include being invited by John Williams, the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to sit on a fintech advisory board for the bank. I was also invited by New York University (NYU) to give a lecture on fintech and payments, which is now a subject being taught as part of their curriculum, and I helped advise on their new fintech MBA. Another highlight was presenting to the UN Security Council Counter Terrorism Committee on digital efforts to combat terrorist financing.

But above all what I see as highlights are instances where I can see immediate impact in the lives of others. Thinking about how Kickstarter helped Allbirds launch and then seeing them go public on the Nasdaq years later is a great example– but as is regularly helping an elderly Wise user navigate the website (and his bank’s online account) to complete a transfer to his relatives.

Your Impact:

At both Tink and JP Morgan (Wholesale Payments), I have supported the creation and participation in D&I/DEI groups. While at JPM, I contributed to one of their mentorship programs, with a focus on an LGBTQiA+ fintech.

During my time at Wise, I challenged the HR group and helped create their US benefits program, including their first parental (regardless of gender identity, birth, or adoption) leave policy of four months fully paid, surpassing US standards and leading to company global minimum standards.

Believing strongly in the UN Sustainable Development Goals to decrease the average cost of remittances, my colleagues and I at Wise worked to support, and in the end tremendously surpass these goals, guaranteeing the recipient receiving fuller value remittances; and sitting on the World Bank Global Remittances Working Group to track efforts similar to the above.

The Pride Powerlist is important not only to inspire young people starting their careers to be themselves – but also to help raise awareness within all career levels already in finance and technology that there are a multiplicity of contributors with valuable insight and opinions.

Your Advice:

Finance might conjure up images of pinstripes and oak board rooms (and those still exist) but it’s come a long way and realises the value of diversity in employees and products – and there is still a lot of work to be done in fintech for the betterment of the LBGTQIA+ community.

Your viewpoints are absolutely critical to creating the best possible user experiences and technologies, which can in turn create better financial inclusion and financial literacy. This is one of the biggest impacts we can make, especially to LGBTQIA+ communities which can still see high percentages of being underbanked and working in cash-based economies. We can continue to challenge historic norms like including non-binary options in onboarding processes or the recent examples of chosen names on payment cards.

As you start in your career in fintech stay curious and inquisitive – ask ‘why’ and push your thinking when it comes to ‘how’ to include your own voice and perspective. By driving culture and promoting that diversity across the industry, we are working to make sure our environment is an inclusive one.
Stay true to who you are and your values and look for how you can positively impact your company, whether that’s internal culture and policies or external product features to encourage inclusion.