After a successful 40-year-long career in banking and fintech as an innovator, educator and evangelist, Helene Panzarino has joined Skillwork, a UK-based business builder, as Chief Ecosystem Evangelist.

Author of the number one banking book for 2021/2022, Reinventing Banking & Finance: Frameworks to navigate global fintech innovation, and former banker, Helene’s most recent corporate role was as Interim Director with the LIBF Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, having previously created and led the Fintech Professional Education Programmes for LIBF’s Centre for Digital Finance in the UK, MENA, and Asia. 

Helene’s career boasts a number of ‘firsts’, including the global FinTech Scale Programme for Rainmaking, the inaugural Programme of Education and Events for Innovate Finance, and the FinTech Module of the Entrepreneurship Masters’ for UCL. She has acted as a board member, trustee and advisor for several fintech initiatives and products, more recently, RegTech Kalgera, the UK Digital bank Pennyworth, the International Longevity Centre, MoneyLive, and the ICAEW Financial Services Faculty. 

Helene’s stellar record is a showcase of how lifting up the tech ecosystem and focusing on singular issues (e.g. SME financing) can really make a difference to a country’s GDP and output.

Support for tech businesses is critical. Founders cite a lack of talent and investment as reasons for not working on niche problems felt by ‘invisible’ communities. Although investment levels have started to steady and the UK government has committed funds to help retain the UK’s global position as a fintech leader, resources, time and money continue to be bottlenecks for founders and teams, an area that Skillwork wants to fix.

Helene’s role will include building key partnerships with startups, scaleups and corporates who are building new fintech solutions. Her first area of focus will be on products and services that understand the changing lifelong needs of consumers in both the UK and US.

Financial services that meet the needs of people who are increasingly living beyond outdated expectations, is a huge area of concern. According to the PRB, the number of Americans ages 65 and older is projected to increase from 58 million in 2022 to 82 million by 2050 (a 47% increase), and the 65-and-older age group’s share of the total population is projected to rise from 17% to 23%. Health challenges will impact on the ability of some of those in their 80s, 90s and older to manage day-to-day financial matters.

Skillwork co-founder, Ali Youssef commented: “We’re solving the single most critical challenge decision-makers are facing today - end-to-end support to ideate, build and sell from a business standpoint. Fintech and health-tech are the most pressing areas as both are constantly innovating and evolving due to longevity becoming a highly discussed topic and the ever-changing landscape impacting customer needs. Having someone who has the wealth of experience to pivot and look for solutions from every angle, like Helene has, is a huge coup for us. Skillwork are really fortunate to have Helene on board”.

Skillwork co-founder, Jan Gasiewski states: “The word leader does not even start to encompass everything Helene has done for the fintech community. She has a truly unique perspective due to having lived, advocated for, built and worked through the many life cycles finance and tech have had over the past four decades. It is only with a keen willingness to see change happen for the betterment of society can a business really make a difference. Couple this with lived experience, and we are already ahead of the game with the inclusion of Helene on our team”.

Helene Panzarino stated: “Supporting tech leaders has been my professional driver, and now I'm doing just that with one of the most exciting companies I have met with in years. The team at Skillwork are acutely aware that businesses do not make time in the most important stage of building tech – research and product market fit. Add to that the fact that many companies are not able to afford to build products that address issues encountered by forgotten, marginalised or excluded communities, and you wind up with hugely underserved

communities. Great examples of Skillwork doing this include supporting founders eager to fix challenges in dental care, SMEs finance and services, or financial products for a whole of life. Ali and Jan are building the future companies that will enhance and enrich society. I am so proud to be by their side building real-life impact solutions and using our shared skills to better people’s lives through much-needed fintech products and services”.

About Skillwork

UK-based business builder, Skillwork, is the button entrepreneurs push when they are ready to turn their ideas into a reality. Skillwork then works with teams to bring products and services to market that can be used and loved by the masses.

From day one, Skillwork is there every step of the way to support founders, executives, product and engineering teams at startups, scaleups and corporates with everything necessary to ideate, build and run a successful fintech or medtech proposition.

The operational and technology concierge of choice for leaders; as a truly diverse collective with a wealth of technical, entrepreneurial and business expertise, Skillwork ensures that whatever a business needs to make it a success, it will be provided. As a team, Skillwork combines its unique entrepreneurial mindset with best practices found in enterprise environments, helping founders build great companies, and big companies think more like founders.

With prominent clients such as GSK, Haleon and Emirates Development Bank (EDB) plus respected partners such as UCL, Skillwork finds pride in its unique approach to solving their clients’ problems with technology. Skillwork firmly believes that genuine innovation thrives in a culture that is brimming with happy and talented individuals, and where clients engage not with a contractor, but with a true partner that they can talk to and rely on.

Announcement in Startup Reporter.