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Griffin hires Chief Product Officer and General Counsel to support next phase of platform maturity and commercial growth

The Banking as a Service fintech acquires top-tier talent with Sameer Dubey joining as CPO and Fergus Speight joining as GC.

Portrait of Shanzé Ijaz Munir
Shanzé Ijaz MunirThursday 15 December 2022

London, December 15th, 2022 – Today, BaaS (Banking as a Service) fintech Griffin announced two new executive hires: Sameer Dubey as Chief Product Officer and Fergus Speight as General Counsel. These appointments will help strengthen Griffin’s already impressive leadership team as the company enters a key phase of growth.

Bridging the gap between startups, scaleups and banks

Sameer Dubey has had a 15 year career in financial services, with an impressive resume that spans traditional banking and innovative startups. Prior to Griffin, Sameer was Chief Operating Officer at Bitstamp, a leading crypto exchange, and Head of Operations for N26, a European digital bank. Additionally, he was Head of Payments Products (UK) at Barclays Corporate Bank. Sameer brings an invaluable blend of hands-on financial services experience and a deep understanding of how to scale responsibly in a fast-paced startup environment.

Having led product & proposition development, in both traditional and challenger banks, Sameer will shepherd building the next suite of products for Griffin’s vision of a full-stack, API-first platform.

“With the rapid convergence of technology and finance, brands across industries are building innovative financial services products at speed. It is exciting to join Griffin during this market evolution and to provide our customers and partners with the building blocks they need to meet the evolving needs of modern consumers and businesses,” Sameer Dubey, Chief Product Officer at Griffin said.

Embedding compliance and regulation into the future of banking

Prior to Griffin, Fergus Speight was General Counsel at Royal London and has practised law for over 25 years. Fergus brings a wealth of experience in the financial services industry that will be indispensable as Griffin takes its BaaS platform to market.

“It’s incredibly exciting to join a company that has such an innovative approach to building new financial products, but truly values the spirit of regulation and compliance. I look forward to supporting the company and am thrilled to be joining such a talented team,” Fergus Speight, General Counsel at Griffin said.

As General Counsel, Fergus will be responsible for scaling the company’s legal function, a key pillar of any fintech seeking to become an authorised bank. Fergus is an experienced corporate governance leader who will guide Griffin on its path to sustainable expansion.

The next phase of growth for Griffin

These exceptional hires come on the heels of Griffin achieving several platform milestones, including launching its first product, Verify, and moving its sandbox out of beta. Fergus and Sameer will be essential in the next stage of development which will bring Griffin closer to actualising its mission to become the de facto OS for embedded finance.

“We are thrilled to have such outstanding talent join as we expand our platform and our customer base. Sameer and Fergus bring a unique set of skills that will help us achieve our ambitious goals over the coming months,” David Jarvis, co-founder and CEO said.

About Griffin

Griffin is making the bank you can build on. The company is developing an API-first, full-stack Banking as a Service platform that lets companies focus on building products for their customers, not managing back-end infrastructure and compliance operations. Griffin is currently seeking authorisation to become a bank with the PRA (Prudential Regulation Authority) and the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority). It was founded by Silicon Valley engineers David Jarvis and Allen Rohner (who co-founded tech unicorn CircleCI) and is led by a team of banking and technology executives from the Nasdaq, Form3, Monzo, SWIFT, GoCardless and more. Griffin is based in the UK and backed by investors EQT Ventures, Notion Capital, Tribe Capital, and Seedcamp. Learn more: www.griffin.sh