Growing within an organization can involve much more than just working in one role. As many CFOs have demonstrated, spending a long time with one organization can involve multiple roles that feel like different jobs entirely. But the exposure to different business areas, combined with opportunities to grow and travel, are the building blocks to sound financial leadership.
For Chantal Wessels, her career has extended into different realms of corporate finance as well as different corners of the globe. A native of South Africa, Wessels has worked in Australia, Europe, and the U.S. during her 10-year career at Nasdaq. Now, just six months into her new role at Apex, a technological backbone to many fintech products currently on the market, Wessels reflects on what her role at Nasdaq did for her career, the importance of working around different cultures, and how she approaches potential regulation in fintech.
Chantal Wessels
Apex Fintech Solutions
First CFO Position: 2022
Notable Previous Companies:
- Nasdaq
- Thomson Reuters
- PKF Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers
- EY
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
ADAM ZAKI: You're with a new organization for the first time in over 10 years. How has the adjustment been?
CHANTAL WESSELS: The adjustment has been great, it's been a much different experience than anything I've ever had in my career. I was with [Nasdaq] for more than 10 years; they're a public company with a much more structured environment. At Apex, we are not as structured as a public company would be. We have an amazing growth story, so it's been my job to make sure we have the foundation to support that story and continue our growth.
What about Nasdaq made you stick around for as long as you did?
WESSELS: Nasdaq supported me so much in my career. I started with them in their Sydney office, looking after Asia-Pacific markets and other finance-related things. Then, they moved me to Sweden to do the same thing with a few more responsibilities. And then to the United States. So working for them gave me so many opportunities over the decade I was there, and gave me a solid baseline to go out and continue my career as a CFO.
I got to the point in my personal and professional life where I felt like I was ready for a change. Apex had reached out to me previously about the possibility of a role. I just knew I wanted to do something completely different, especially when it came to supporting the business through a strategic transformation like I am doing now. Nasdaq was great for this because I got to see how other businesses went through that, especially during the beginning of their transformation journeys.
How have your opportunities to see the world and work with different kinds of people made you a better CFO?
WESSELS: It's significantly helped me. It's amazing how much culture contributes to decision-making in a room — a lot of things can get lost in translation. Translation of all types of communication can be challenging with people who are from different backgrounds with different perspectives. My experience working around the world taught me how to appreciate a diversity of thoughts and ideas.
As a leader, it's given me a lot of insight. All the people I've worked with across the world have helped me understand what people really want, and I can use that to drive outcomes that work well for me and my team.
You started your career working as a bank teller. How did this play into your pursuit of a career in finance?
WESSELS: Not very much honestly. My grandmother had a very high position at a bank so I worked there as a summer job when I was in university. I will say, it was a lot of fun and I did learn a lot about how money works. It was a great experience. It was better for me than working in a restaurant or something like that because I was studying accounting. I can count money like old-fashioned bank tellers can — now they have these crazy machines. But, if you look at how they used to do it before those machines existed, I can actually still do that.
We have an amazing growth story, so it's been my job to make sure we have the foundation to support that story and continue our growth.
Chantal Wessels
CFO of Apex Fintech Solutions
Regulators are looking more into the partnerships between banks and their fintechs. How do you prepare for regulation like this, or any other types of regulation that may impact your business model?
WESSELS: We are definitely talking about regulation. We are very active in our dialogue around this stuff. In terms of our approach, it is a little more impactful to us than to others. We are on a lot of expert panels with organizations we partner with and events we are a part of. We provide a lot of feedback to others in this area, so it's super-important that our organization stays updated on these sorts of things.
Crypto is a big area that has affected us. In 2021, the company wanted to go public. But, because of the grief the SEC gave the organization in terms of making their disclosures right, it became a back-and-forth thing that led the company to give up and stop the attempt. In hindsight, that's the best decision they could've made looking at what subsequently happened to SPACs.
The regulatory landscape is changing every day. We are having communications with different banks and fintechs on how to deal with the situations that regulations could cause, and we are continuing to be sources for expert panels and takes on these topics. For me, it comes down to sensitivity analysis to see if certain regulations come to fruition, and how we can be impacted. We are very proactive on this front, but we are also not scared to provide our opinion if we believe a regulation effort is not right for our industry.