Digital business bank OakNorth has appointed Nilan Peiris, the chief product officer of Wise as a non-executive director.
Peiris, who has been working with the global remittance fintech – formerly known as TransferWise – for more than a decade, will join the board at OakNorth as it expands internationally.
“I have been following OakNorth’s journey since inception and have always admired its commitment to customers, the scale of its ambition, and its unique approach to addressing one of the biggest commercial customer pain points in existence – access to credit,” Peiris said.
Peiris became chief product officer of Wise back in 2021, having initially worked as a growth advisor to the firm in 2012, then later as its VP of growth.
“As OakNorth continues to broaden its support for entrepreneurs through its business banking offering and expansion to the US, I’m excited to be part of the next phase of growth.”
OakNorth provides digital banking services mainly to small and medium-sized businesses. Last week, the challenger bank secured regulatory approval to market its financial products in the US.
“It is rare to find people who have experience working for an organisation as it has grown from a startup, to scaleup, to a listed global organisation and to have supported the founder-CEO throughout this growth journey,” said OakNorth CEO Rishi Khosla.
“I have been deeply impressed by what Nilan has achieved at Wise and as OakNorth continues to scale, both in terms of our product offering and geographic footprint, Nilan’s breadth and depth of expertise will prove invaluable.”