Validis, the provider of open accounting data and analytics, announces the appointment of former Lloyds and Metro Bank product specialist, Ronan O’Dea as Head of Product.

In his new role Ronan will be bringing his extensive experience to lead the product management function at Validis, strengthening the global proposition, unifying the product vision and accelerating innovation and growth plans. He has held leadership roles in product strategy for the last seven years, launching multiple digital SME lending offerings across origination and customer management for Lloyds and most recently, Metro Bank.

Validis currently manages the acquisition and curation of SME accounting data for several top-tier UK banks and the largest global accounting firms. This senior-hire points to ambitious plans as the fintech seeks to enhance a product suite to support accounting and financial firms on a global scale.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Validis at such an exciting time in the evolution of the business”, says Ronan. “The Validis platform offers unrivalled capabilities across the SME landscape, with valuable insights, analytics and financial intelligence that are helping our global accounting and financial services customers re-imagine how they serve their SME clients. I’m looking forward to leading the next phase of customer-centric innovation.” 

Paul Thomas, CEO of Validis said, “We’re delighted to welcome Ronan to our senior team as we accelerate our innovation plans. He brings a breadth and depth of SME lending and banking knowledge and experience that will enhance and add to the strength of our very talented team.”