Exclusive: ‘Scale-UP Sorcress’ – Helene Panzarino, The London Institute of Banking & Finance in “Swashbucklers 2020”

Is there anything Helene hasn’t done? From writing two SME business books, to setting up accredited fintech degrees, we can hardly keep up with her drive to accelerate our industry into the mainstream.

This CEO, MD, Media Guest, Event Speaker, Author, Serial Entrepreneur is multilingual, multi-cultural … and seriously multi-talented. Researching her achievements was more exhausting than running a marathon, which she’s also done. Twice.

Putting the fun in funding

Over the past two decades, Panzarino has helped more than 20,000 SMEs on their funding journeys. And created the world’s first Fintech Scale – Tier 1 accelerator programme. Since she launched, there have even been a few sly copycat initiatives, which she brushes aside in seven mike-dropping words, “Imitation is the best form of flattery”. And that’s why we love her.

Here at Fintech Finance, we’re not the first to notice Panzarino. Far from it. This German-Italian superstar has swept up more than eight honours for her work. She frequents the award sections of magazines more often than most of us frequent our local pub. Ambitious, authentic and ahead of her time, Panzarino truly adds new possibilities to our landscape.

We reached out to the woman herself, to find out the most valuable lesson she’s learned so far on her fintech journey. “Ignore the hype”, she reveals. “Be able to see beyond the headlines to what is happening now and coming in the future. And do your due diligence on everyone. Twitter is not enough.”

On her approach to work, “I am what I would call ‘organised chaos’, which reflects both my German and Italian heritage. I am also an information junkie… I have a reputation for being the woman you turn to when you have a blank piece of paper that needs writing on”. I couldn’t agree more – her vibrant and jam-packed career certainly helped fill up this word count!

What can we expect  for the future?

For the future, Panzarino intends to put her feet up and watch the world go by. Not really.

Her third book, “Reinventing Banking and Finance: Frameworks to Navigate Global FinTech Innovation” will be available to buy in November this year. And it promises to be a page-turner.

Panzarino disclosed to us that she’ll also be taking on an additional new role as the Chief Ecosystem Officer … at a mystery company … to be revealed later this year. Detective hats and magnifying glasses to the ready… something’s afoot.

We don’t know too much about it yet, except that she’ll be building up a new neo bank ecosystem, with a focus on underserved LGBTQIA+ customers in the U.S… Watch this space! And she’ll be rocketing ahead in her role as the Associate Director at the London Institute of Banking and Finance. Panzarino will be working on launching a new centre, with more accredited educational courses. Go on Panzarino

This article was published in Swashbucklers 2020, Page 13