Nataly Medici
CEO of Medici Expert
Nataly, your background spans over a decade in corporate finance and compliance before founding Medici Expert. What inspired you to transition from traditional finance into the world of digital economy and fintech, and what convinced you to build something of your own?
After more than a decade in corporate finance and compliance, I had seen the strengths of the classical model: structure, scale, operational precision. And I had also seen its limits—the rigidity, the inertia, and the struggle to keep pace with evolving market realities.
My first work with digital-native projects, especially in crypto, was an inflexion point. Apart from the technology itself, I was struck by the freedom this industry offered. In it, you’re both patching innovation onto a legacy chassis and designing systems around innovation itself. That significantly changes core fundamentals such as design logic, speed, and accountability.
However, it also revealed a glaring market gap: very few professionals can navigate both sides—the mechanics of traditional finance and the dynamics of the digital economy. This combination is exactly where the strongest foundations are built.
That realization led me to founding Medici Expert—a consultancy created to help fintech and crypto ventures build legal and financial architectures that withstand volatility, scale across borders, and earn long-term trust. Because without maturity, there is no stability. And without stability, there is no future—not for the technology, not for the business, and certainly not for the industry.
It’s fascinating that you’ve built a career on reading both sides of the system. What specific barriers do you believe are keeping more women from entering leadership roles in fintech and crypto—especially in legal, compliance, and finance-focused roles?
In fintech and crypto, the barriers are rarely explicit—they’re just subtle, systemic, cultural, and often easy to overlook.
These roles demand a rare mix of skills: financial logic, legal acumen, digital fluency, and a product mindset. It’s less about women’s capability and more about the fact that the systems cultivating cross-disciplinary competence were designed with different career paths in mind. Naturally, this creates a structural gap that gets mistaken for a “lack of experience.”
Beyond that, there is the issue of performative expectation. A compliance leader must be firm and analytical, but when women embody those traits, they’re branded as too cold or difficult. So they self-moderate, forced to lead within invisible boundaries men never face.
And perhaps the most under-discussed barrier is the absence of mentorship. There is simply no visible example—no one to say, “Yes, you belong here. Yes, this space is yours to lead.” Without that visibility, self-doubt creeps in, and talented women opt out before they’ve had a chance to opt in.
Indeed, your vision really shows how systemic these barriers are. Looking across different markets you’ve worked in, from Europe to the UAE, do you see those barriers playing out in the same way, or are there important differences?
Yes, geography matters just as much as the industry when it comes to women’s leadership. Legal systems, cultural expectations, and institutional maturity all differ by region, and they directly shape how leadership is perceived.
For instance, in much of Europe, regulations, diversity mandates, and corporate governance principles formally support inclusion. Yet the barriers don’t vanish; they become more refined. Women are often met with hesitation—there are many invitations to contribute, often tied to meeting quotas rather than tapping into expertise.
By contrast, in the Gulf, cultural codes are more formal, and public roles are often viewed through a traditional lens. But because the region lacks deeply entrenched legacy systems, there is space to build from first principles. That creates a paradox: while cultural expectations can be restrictive, competence and results can open doors faster than in Europe, where generational assumptions weigh more heavily.
I think, regardless of location, effective female leadership is a practice of adaptive presence—the ability to be who you are while understanding the structure around you.
Sure, adaptive presence is key when the structures weren’t designed to reflect everyone’s path. Since you work at the core of regulatory transformation, do you think regulation, when done right, could also be a force for inclusion—even reshaping the landscape for women in fintech and crypto?
In my view, regulation is about the recognition of maturity. As long as an industry remains in its experimental phase, it tends to be shaped by those who move fastest and stay closest to capital. But the moment regulation enters, infrastructure follows, bringing accountability, professional standards, protection, and predictability.
That’s usually the point where women start taking on more strategic roles, because the industry begins to resemble environments where they’ve long proven their strength: legal systems, audit, risk, financial governance, compliance.
So, I don’t believe regulation alone can solve gender disparity, but it certainly changes the terms of engagement and transforms an industry from an informal arena into an accountable system.
Now let’s narrow in on your leadership at Medici Expert—a firm that has built its reputation in a field where trust is everything. What personal principles have helped you earn long-term credibility, especially as a woman entrepreneur in such a technical space?
Honestly, I never built my leadership around being a “woman in a man’s world.” I focused on clarity, consistency, and refusing to water down complexity just to make things sound easier. If a regulation is a deadlock, I’ll call it that. If a risk is material, I won’t present it as a minor issue.
Another principle I live by is the tone of communication. Whether it’s regulators, investors, partners, or our team, I always try to think two steps ahead. The way we write, speak, and structure arguments should pre-empt questions and clarify issues before they even surface.
And I’d add this: I’ve never been an “agreeable” expert. Paradoxically, that’s exactly what builds long-term trust. Because in this space, everyone knows: the person who always says yes isn’t really in control of anything. But the one who can say no—likely has a hand on everything that matters.
Thanks for walking me through those principles; they really bring out your approach to leadership. To close, what do you hope will change in the next five years for women building businesses or shaping policy in crypto and fintech?
In the next five years, I hope to see a broader shift toward stability in every sense of the word. And I believe women will play a growing role in designing that stability—at the level of strategic architecture. I expect the visible gaps between day-to-day involvement and final decision-making authority to narrow, as more women take on leadership in areas that define product architecture, regulatory strategy, and capital allocation. I’m not anticipating a dramatic transformation.
What I hope for most is that in half a decade, a woman building a fintech company or shaping regulatory policy will no longer be described as “impressive for a woman.” She’ll simply be recognised as someone doing serious, system-level work—without caveats, footnotes, or explanations. Just part of the professional landscape.
