Vitesse introduces three new additions to its ever-expanding team. The global payments platform, headquartered in London, is pleased to welcome Richard King, Ashley Abdelmoula and Bill Wilkins. With their varied background and skill sets, they are all ready to take InsurTech to new heights. 

Richard is entering the company as the new COO. His early career involved a management programme at General Electric, where he continued for 10 years working as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt and then running a large-scale operation. Soon after he moved into retail banking at Barclays, responsible for running the mortgage operation at the high street bank followed by a short time at HSBC. His introduction to payments came next, with a move to WorldPay, before ending up in his most recent role at fintech WorldRemit.

“For almost three decades, I’ve always strived towards building processes and systems that are best in class and put the customer and client at the centre of their design,” said Richard. “With Vitesse, there’s an existing product which is already revolutionising the payments industry and I’m thrilled to be able to bring my expertise to the company.”

Richard’s skills lie in operations, management and compliance, with a leadership strain running throughout his entire career. He met Phil McGriskin, Vitesse’s CEO, whilst at WorldRemit, which is when he became intrigued by the unique proposition and its exciting position within the market - fresh from a Series B funding round. 

“Everybody talks about automation, but nowadays it’s much more than that. We need to understand how to use it, not just for the sake of it, but to drive value and improvement, and meet the requirements of customers. I’m certain that Vitesse can become best-in-class whilst, most importantly, making a difference!”

Similar to Richard, Ashley is no stranger to the corporate world, as he has held several senior roles in insurance, reinsurance, captives, and fund and wealth management over the course of almost three decades. He’s ready to utilise his wealth of experience to make a real difference in the modern insurance world.

Within his new role as Head of Insurance Proposition, he is responsible for growing the proposition across Vitesse’s insurance solutions and supporting the Customer Success, Business Development and Relationship Management teams with their engagement across the insurance market.

“Insurance is at the heart of any economy,” Ashley said. “It’s a real driving force of good: restoring houses after a flood, covering the cost of a cancer patient, rebuilding devastated communities after a hurricane, the list goes on. It’s a truly fascinating, challenging and fun industry - yes, insurance can be fun!

“I’ve created several unusual specialist risk products that challenged the way insurance is viewed by some, and it’s what excites me the most - making a difference in people's lives.”

Bill, who has spent the last 30 years working in tech companies, echoes a similar sentiment to Ashley.

“The insurance sector has come a long way,” said Bill, “but there is certainly still room for improvement. Technology has continued to force many industries to innovate and adapt, and the insurance sector is no different. Vitesse has been a huge player within the field and I’m extremely excited to be part of it.”

With a background in engineering at some of the world’s largest technology firms, more recently, Bill has applied his experience to help smaller organisations scale. He was the technical and product executive responsible for the growing First Utility, joining the founding team of 30 people and scaling, right up to its sale to Shell, to a 1,400-strong team and £1bn revenue.

“The future with Vitesse is hugely exciting. Following a successful Series B funding round at the beginning of 2022, we’re now in a position to accelerate our product vision to create the world's largest advanced banking aggregation network. I’m ready to spearhead this operation.”

Phil McGriskin is pleased to introduce the three new faces to the team, who are destined to be influential in the growth of the Vitesse over the next 12 months.

“Vitesse aims to be the payment partner of choice for the insurance industry,” said Phil. “We’re focused on delivering payment and treasury functionality that makes a difference to our customers. To do that effectively, we need an ever deeper understanding of them, and the market in which they operate.

“With the addition of these three talented individuals, I have no doubt that the next few years are going to be extremely successful for Vitesse.”