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Natasha Lala

GM @ EQ Bank | 2x COO | Scale-Up and Change Executive | FinTech | SaaS

Toronto, Ontario

Overview 

Natasha Lala is the General Manager at EQ Bank, with a successful career as a 2-time Chief Operating Officer in the FinTech industry. She has a strong track record in leading scale-up initiatives and implementing change strategies within organizations. Lala's career highlights include serving as the Chief Operating Officer at Quadient and ApplePie Capital, demonstrating her expertise in executive leadership, business transformation, and driving growth in the SaaS sector.

Work Experience 

  • 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.

ApplePie Capital is an alternative financing software platform designed for franchise businesses.

Raised $42,362,000.00 from ZMT Capital.

  • 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

IBM is an IT technology and consulting firm providing computer hardware, software, infrastructure, and hosting services.

Education 

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