Natasha Lala

General Manager (Vice President), EQ Bank

2023 - Current

Chief Operating Officer, Daylight (Acquired by Quadient)

2020 - 2023

(was Daylight Automation, acquired by Quadient) First non-founder executive, brought on to work closely with founders to scale the business and team. Responsible for: Professional Services, Client Success, Technical Operations, Finance, People/HR, and Compliance (SOC 2 Type2). * Closed USD 12M Series A (Bessemer Venture Partners, RTP, Golden Ventures) in partnership with CEO. * During economic downturn, reduced expenses by 30% while working with the executive team to grow 45%. * Implemented formal annual budget process, along with quarterly planning and tracking against fiscal targets and business objectives. * Led turnaround for most troubled enterprise client, engaging at both executive and project team levels. Helped maintain 100% GRR with blue chip client base (key clients included: TD, Loblaw, RBC, Manulife, BMO). * Developed banded compensation structure and led transition of start-up style comp to a rationalized pay structure based on industry data. * Led people initiatives that resulted in an increase in 20 points on eNPS and 10% reduction in attrition.

Chief Operating Officer

2018 - 2020

Responsible for technology and operations functions including: Engineering (CTO), Business Intelligence, Loan Operations, HR and IT/InfoSec. Accountable for creating cross-functional strategies for scale and driving the execution of those initiatives * Reduced operational expenses by 35% while supporting originations volume growth of 260%. * Moved to a fully digital loan application and servicing borrower experience integrated with Salesforce to guide borrowers through the application process more effectively. * Reduced per transaction operational expense in technology, loan processing and legal costs. * Established BI function and infrastructure to create a data-driven culture; Required integration of disparate technologies and processes in order to produce actionable insights; Created cohort measurement and analysis leading to increase in conversion at the top of the funnel. * During COVID-19 crisis, scaled to handle 100x usual volumes due to unprecedented demand for SBA Payroll Protection Program loans.

Managing Director, Solutions for Business

2014 - 2017

Full P&L accountability for OANDA Payments and OANDA Rates businesses. In three years achieved 4X revenue (ARR) growth and a 2X increase in number of paying clients. • OANDA Rates is a B2B SaaS offering which provides currency data (including cryptocurrencies) and analytics to millions of individuals and thousands of CFOs and their corporations worldwide (sample clients include: Google, Alibaba, Airbnb, Tesla, Berkshire Hathaway, IATA, Disney, Samsung). • OANDA Payments provides B2C and B2B international payment services. Built team from scratch, provided hands-on product management, and grew into an established business with a cross-functional team and San Francisco presence.

Chief of Staff to CEO

2014 - 2017

Worked closely with the CEO, providing a range of support as he repositioned the company for growth. Held variety of executive roles, and led strategic initiatives on behalf of the CEO. Key initiatives/roles included:
 • Chief Marketing Officer: accountable for a global budget of over $20M and teams across all lines of business. • General Manager for Americas region: a third of company’s total revenue, with agressive growth targets. • Executive Program Management of Strategic projects included: complete revision of compensation structure for the company; developing a revised compliance risk program with the Chief Risk Officer; restructuring the client engagement organization. Proactively provided visibility for the CEO into unanticipated opportunities and risks faced by the executive team.

Vice President, Engineering, Operations and Program Management

2012 - 2014

Accountable for operating budget of over $15M and a staff of over 100 developers, program managers, and designers. Responsible for diverse set of products and technologies: • Client Trading Interfaces: mobile (iOS/Android), web (HTML5), FIX and REST APIs. • Client Growth: web site, client registration automation (integrated Equifax, Experian). • Payments: Credit/debit cards, ACH, bank wire, check processing, CUP through a variety of global processors including PayPal, Braintree, ingenico, and other tier one banking partners. • Back-end trade execution and risk management systems: executed over 1 million in transactions and $4 billion in volume each day. • Reduced the average time for client to sign-up and trade from 15 days to under 1 minute through UX, process and technology improvements. • Led transformation from functional-based to Agile project teams; introduced Atlassian as toolset (JIRA, Confluence). • Represented Engineering in regulatory audits globally (CFTC, IIROC, FCA, JFSA, MAS, FSG).

Director of Program Management

2006 - 2012

Created Program Management function and PMO; Grew it to team of 5 managing OANDA’ s global portfolio of technology and business projects. Key initiatives: • Defined and rolled out a global prioritization process to handle increasing demand on resources.
Included creating and managing Executive Steering Committee to align project portfolio with company’s strategic initiatives and fiscal targets. • Parachuted in to take over troubled relationship with our largest banking partner (a Tier 1 Bank) operating OANDA's foreign exchange trading platform; Increased project revenue from $1M to $4M in 3 years with an 80% margin. • Led global expansion projects as OANDA opened offices in Singapore and London; and projects to expand regulatory reach with the CTFC (US), FCA (UK), MAS (Singapore), IIROC (Canada), ASIC (Australia) and JFSA (Japan). • Launched mobile versions of Currency Converter and first-to-market trading iOS/android apps.

Director of Client Services

2003 - 2010

Launched Client Services and grew it to 30 to support rapid growth of OANDA globally. Key initiatives: • Implemented infrastructure for CRM, Telephony, Chat functionality. • Implemented 24/5 support, covering 6 languages to handle rapidly growing international client base. • Created standard processes/training spanning all customer service activities (including KYC and AML procedures) to create rapid, consistent, high quality responses that adhered to regulatory requirements.

Customer Program Manager

2001 - 2003

• Led company's first product trial with Verizon Wireless and first live customer trial with regional operator in Oregon. • Managed deployments of product in the US and Asia-Pacific including companies such as Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, Rogers, Bell, NTT Docomo. • Worked with C-suite to assist with troubled projects or new initiatives throughout Canada, the US, and Asia Pacific.

Product Marketing Manager

2000 - 2001

• Provided collateral targeted to both small start-up operators as well large-scale telcos. • Delivered product demonstrations to investors and large telcos such as Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, Rogers, Bell, NTT Docomo. Resulted in $200M of funding and trials with Verizon and NTT Docomo.

Software Engineer

1998 - 2000

Global Services Division