Ele Ward
CMO of Ctrl Alt
Please introduce yourself, your background, and your company
I’m CMO of Ctrl Alt, B2B Infrastructure provider for the alternative asset sector. From wealth managers looking to open up investing in alts to clients to asset owners looking to tokenise and structure.
As for my background, I initially entered the fintech space because of my interest in climate tech. Through my first job in fintech, I joined a discourse around how to be more sustainable in your spending. From that, I became passionate about the power of finance. Coming into it as a female with no prior fintech background has been challenging at times.
Is the startup environment inclusive for women in fintech, in your opinion?
Startups can be a complicated place to be and there's loads of elements that play a factor. For example, I know that realistically, hypothetically, if I had children and different economic pressures from that decision, would I risk joining a startup compared to a man of the same age with similar responsibilities? It’s a fast-moving and very demanding industry. There's a myth that women can have it all, but in practice, that's sadly not often all of the case.
What kind of initiatives should be done to challenge this status quo in the fintech space?
Money speaks volumes, so access to funding is crucial. It’s about giving people, especially female founders and executives, the autonomy to be part of those conversations. An equal representation in your leadership is also vital for a company that wants to expand its services.
Moreover, I’m also a big believer in meaningful early programs to engage girls from school and get them interested in fintech. We’ve noticed that we had barely any young females apply for certain jobs at Ctrl Alt. For example, we hired two interns to join us last summer and were quite surprised by the few young females that applied for the role. This was a humbling experience that showed us how important it is for a hiring team to analyse a career page and job descriptions for any biases to eliminate any barriers for applicants with diverse backgrounds.
It’s a great thing there are so many roles in fintech. And not all of them necessarily revolve around hard-core tech. At any stage of a career, particularly for women, there’s always an opportunity to learn and engage with this sector.
