Melanie Steiner
Regional Director at Ondo Finance
Melanie, which career decision demanded the most confidence, and what did it teach you about leadership?
Leaving Adidas and Puig demanded the most confidence. These are both wonderful brands, full of ambitious, eager people who genuinely love sport and fashion, full of creativity and strong human bonds. For anyone in that world, walking away from it is close to unthinkable. But I wanted to work in other countries, in other industries, and see how I can grow.
So I moved to Mercado Libre, e-commerce and fintech. In practice, it was a hard reset of my career, but I was curious and I wanted to go back to live in Buenos Aires. It was the perfect opportunity for me.
In brand marketing, the brand does part of the work for you. You walk into a room and you already have permission. I remember being invited to cocktail receptions almost every evening, and of course it was because of who I represented, not who I was. In e-commerce, that’s harder. It's all about growth. I went from campaigns measured on brand sentiment and awareness to a very data driven way of thinking. I had to learn acquisition, conversion, retention and unit economics essentially from scratch, while leading people who already understood them far better than I did. But I love people management, a position not everyone appreciates.
What it taught me about leadership was to be clear and confident about both halves: what you're excellent at, and what you're not. I asked the experts in the room to teach me, and I was equally clear about where they could rely on me — holistic marketing strategy, partnerships, positioning, people, and fast execution. Since then I've built my teams that way: hand people real responsibility and let the expert be the expert.
"Let the expert be the expert. I am always honest about what I don't know, and confident about what I do."
So, in a way, that decision to leave two major global brands became the starting point for your move into fintech and digital assets. Speaking of where the industry is today, what has changed in the market to move RWA tokenisation closer to broad commercial adoption?
I've now watched three adoption waves from the inside: e-commerce at Mercado Libre, digital payments at Mercado Pago QR Code adoption and Pix. Crypto at Binance converted into payments, savings and trading currency, and they all broke the same way — not when the technology got better, but when the user stopped needing to understand it.
Nobody in Brazil adopted Pix because they admired the architecture. They adopted it because money moved instantly and cost nothing and it was so simple to use. That's the moment you influence behaviour and user adoption grows organically.
Tokenisation is just about to reach its version of that moment, and the reasons are unglamorous. Regulation improved. Institutions and retail both showed up, which rarely happens at the same time. The infrastructure stopped being the bottleneck, and the products finally moved to where people already are: exchanges, wallets, neobanks, fintechs, brokers, apps. You can see it in the demand.
"Every adoption wave I've worked on broke the same way: not when the technology got better, but when the user stopped needing to understand it."
For sure, the combination of speed and convenience helps explain why adoption is moving so quickly, with regulation and user behaviour evolving alongside it. LATAM, however, is a very diverse market. So, how should companies adapt their regional strategies to very different levels of crypto adoption?
There is a lot going on in LATAM, and it moves faster than people think. The mistake is treating Latin America as one market. The political and economic dynamics of each country are genuinely different, and language and culture shape how people behave with money.
Here's why the region matters more than its size suggests: in LATAM people adopt new financial technology out of necessity, not out of curiosity about the technology. That makes it the best place in the world to test and learn. So, if a product works for someone whose currency has failed them, it will work anywhere.
Brazil. It has 210 million people, it is the largest economy in the region, and Brazilians are already investors. People there discuss CDI the way people elsewhere discuss the weather. Pix taught the whole country that money should move instantly and for free, at any hour, and that's now the baseline expectation for everything. So, a tokenised treasury is an investment product, and it gets benchmarked against CDI whether you like it or not. Distribution is broker- and platform-led, and content needs a local touch.
Argentina. This is the country with the highest crypto adoption per capita in the region, and it has nothing to do with technology enthusiasm. It's dollar preservation. When you've watched your salary lose value between payday and month-end, you learn to trust your own judgement over any institution. I've lived that. Argentines are the most sophisticated retail users I've ever worked with, because they had to be. Distribution is community, KOLs and exchanges, so peer trust outranks brand trust.
Mexico. There are remittances and cross-border corridors, strong fintech rails, and a conservative regulator. This is still largely a cash economy but the moving one. Someone paid in cash who pays rent in cash needs a real reason to move part of their life on-chain. Wins here are partnership-led and slower, but they stick.
Colombia and Peru. These are curious, but more conservative countries, and they’re moving at their own pace rather than copying Brazil or Mexico. They are education-first. Stablecoins are a good example, as they solved a real pain point for import and export businesses paying and getting paid abroad.
There is one regional narrative, locally specific proof and distribution. This is why you have to understand the language to understand the culture, and only then do you know what actually matters to people.
"Don't localise the language. Localise the reason to care."
Indeed, your examples show just how different these markets are, economically, culturally, and in the way people approach financial products. As tokenised markets are being built, how well represented do you think women are in the rooms deciding what gets built and for whom?
I think women are represented better than people assume, and nowhere near where it should be. But I'd rather talk about the opportunity than the deficit. Tokenisation is young. The hierarchies aren't cemented yet, which makes this the best moment in finance to build a career.
I see a lot of female talent in this space, a genuinely strong presence in growth, business development, sales, influencer marketing and KOL management. And there's a powerful generation coming up, trained on AI and automation from the start. The speed is increasing, but managerial skill is more in demand than ever, because in the end someone has to bring people together and make them work collaboratively. That's where I'd put the focus.
The bigger job is education, showing that this industry is serious and built to last, so that every kind of talent sees a career here.
"Tokenisation is young enough that the seats aren't taken yet. It's the best career timing in finance right now."
Education is something that can sometimes be overlooked, but as you said, it plays an important role. Since you also noted that representation is still nowhere near where it should be, what practical changes would help more women progress into senior roles in fintech, digital assets and financial marketing?
My advice to any woman reading this: take the role that scares you slightly. One of my former leaders used to say you should feel "uncomfortably excited.” That's the moment you know you're good, and that you're stepping outside your comfort zone at the same time. This is where you grow.
Take the job with a target attached to it. Ask for the market nobody else wants to fix, or the project you can build and shape yourself. That's where authority is built, and once you've built it, nobody can take it from you.
What I wish for young talent is more sponsors. More managers should be willing to actively drive someone's career: put them into good positions, push for good salaries, teach them how to negotiate, and make sure they grow with you or because of you. Companies can help enormously here by writing down what a promotion actually requires, but follow through.
I stay in touch with many of my former team members and colleagues, and more than once our paths have crossed again. They are wonderful talents, and I'm certain they have great careers ahead of them.
"Access is what moves careers, and knowing when to move on is part of it."
That's an excellent point! Finally, what advice would you give to women building international careers while staying confident in their own leadership style?
Build your strengths and then put them out there. In my case, languages and cultural fluency have always been to my advantage. I work in German, English, Spanish and Portuguese, and the difference between speaking a language and being translated is the difference between being trusted and being handled. It buys you the room.
Second, read the environment and read what isn't being said. I'm German, and I'm direct. But German directness delivered as-is in São Paulo or Mexico City lands as aggression, as the message dies while the discomfort stays. So I adapt the wrapping, more context, more humour, more relationship and personality before the point. The goal itself never changes. Too many women are told to soften the content. Soften the delivery and the tone, and keep the content. Everyone appreciates a clear answer; “the how” is what makes the difference.
Third, build portable proof and grow your network. Numbers travel across borders and languages, and your reputation and network connect people. In LATAM especially, human connection matters enormously and it lasts.
And don't wait until you feel ready. I have never felt ready for a country or job change.
"Adapt the delivery, never the substance. Women are too often told to soften the message, when all that needed softening was the wrapping."
