Neil Harris — CEO

I’m a founder and operator with 2 successful exits under my belt, who helps investors and leadership teams unlock value in start-ups, scale-ups and growth-stage businesses. Having built and led businesses myself, I understand the reality founders face - fast growth, limited bandwidth, execution challenges, the regulatory environment and the pressure to get results. As a turnaround and scale specialist, I work hands-on with founders and boards to bring firepower to performance, set direction and build scalable foundations that support sustainable growth. My experience spans payments, fintech and technology-led businesses, with a focus on improving unit economics, cash flow and customer outcomes while ensuring technology and operating models are fit for scale. I translate strategy into execution - aligning people, process and platforms to deliver measurable results that matter. A core part of my value is driving exceptional leadership and team performance. I build clarity, accountability and pace, enabling teams to execute confidently through periods of change without losing momentum or culture - reducing delivery risk and accelerating time to value. I add the most value in situations where shareholders need confidence, control and progress: • Growth-Stage & Founder-Led Scale-Ups • Business Turnarounds & Pre-Scale Readiness • Payments & Fintech Strategy • Operational & Commercial Performance Improvement • Leadership Alignment & Execution Discipline • Technology & Value Optimisation

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Fintech and Payments expert with a focus on strategic growth and operational excellence.

Location: London, England, United Kingdom

Experience: 27 yrs 3 mos

Skills

Blockchain
Cryptocurrency
Payments
Fintech
Strategic Vision
Thought Leadership

Career Highlights

Founder with two successful exits.
Expert in scaling fintech and payment solutions.
Strong leadership in driving innovation and performance.

Work Experience

VVTX

Co-Founder & CEO (1 yr 8 mos)

QUBE Events

Member of the Board of Advisors (2 yrs)

UKFin+ Network

Member of the Board of Advisors (1 yr)

Pay.UK

Advisory Council Member - Industry Advisory Council (3 yrs)

The Payments Association

Chair of the Advisory Board (2 yrs 11 mos)

Deputy Chair of the Advisory Board (5 yrs 4 mos)

Pannovate

Group CEO (interim) (10 mos)

Global Processing Services

Group Chief Commercial Officer (2 yrs 1 mo)

Chief Commercial Officer (2 yrs 4 mos)

The Inclusion Foundation

Chair Of The Board Of Directors (6 yrs 8 mos)

b.yond digital

Co-Founder & Director (7 yrs)

SignpostNow

Co-Founder (2 yrs)

FIFTH DIMENSION DIGITAL LTD

Non Executive Board Member (4 yrs)

Bottomline Technologies

Head of Business Development (3 yrs 2 mos)

Business Development Manager EMEA (4 yrs)

AccessPay - Payment Automation Experts

Co-Founder & VP Global Sales (2 yrs 1 mo)

Optio Software

Professional Services Manager EMEA (5 yrs 3 mos)

Regie SA

Project Consultant (3 yrs)

Euromoney Institutional Investor

Account Manager (1 yr 11 mos)

Education

Advanced Management Practice at Henley Business School

BA at York St. John University

Neil Harris

CEO

London, England, United Kingdom27 yrs 3 mos experience

Most Likely To Switch

Key Highlights

Founder with two successful exits.
Expert in scaling fintech and payment solutions.
Strong leadership in driving innovation and performance.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Fintech and Payments expert with a focus on strategic growth and operational excellence.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

BlockchainCryptocurrencyPaymentsFintechStrategic VisionThought Leadership

Other Skills

StablecoinFinancial RegulationStrategy ExecutionKey Performance IndicatorsGrowth StrategiesInternational DevelopmentCustomer EngagementSystem PerformanceSales ManagementMergersBusiness IntelligenceProject PlanningManagementSolution SellingDocument Management

About

Experience

27 yrs 3 mos

Total Experience

3 yrs 6 mos

Average Tenure

6 yrs 8 mos

Current Experience

Vvtx

Co-Founder & CEO

Sep 2024 – Present · 1 yr 8 mos · London, United Kingdom

VVTX is building the bridge between traditional finance and Web3 - a seamless platform for depositing, managing, and spending digital assets, powered by our proprietary Layer 1 blockchain, native GBP stablecoin, and integrated debit card.

CryptocurrencyBlockchainStablecoin

Qube events

Member of the Board of Advisors

Sep 2023 – Sep 2025 · 2 yrs · London, England, United Kingdom · Hybrid

Guiding the company's strategic direction, fostering innovation, and driving growth in the ever-evolving Financial, Payments, and Regtech events industry.

Strategic VisionThought LeadershipStrategy Execution

Ukfin+ network

Member of the Board of Advisors

Jul 2023 – Jul 2024 · 1 yr · Birmingham, England, United Kingdom · Hybrid

Formally launched on 4th July 2023, UKFin+ is a national UKRI/EPSRC network that aims to bring together academics and the financial services industry. The network initiates funding calls for collaborative projects, and also contribute to research strategy, networking, the skills pipeline and international networks.

Strategic Vision

Pay.uk

Advisory Council Member - Industry Advisory Council

May 2023 – Present · 3 yrs · London, England, United Kingdom · Hybrid

Pay.UK’s purpose is to power payments, champion innovation and give the UK choice in how it pays. It is our role to ensure that payments flow without interruption: salaries, benefits, bills, mortgages and other internet and mobile banking payments. We drive competition and innovation in the market by continually modernising today’s and tomorrow’s platform. By doing this, we enable greater payment choice for individuals and organisations. Our vision, to be the smartest way to move money, now and in the future, drives everything we do, and builds on our mandate as a payments systems operator.

FinTechFinancial RegulationPaymentsThought LeadershipStrategy Execution

The payments association

2 roles

Chair of the Advisory Board

Jan 2023 – Dec 2025 · 2 yrs 11 mos

As leaders in the payments industry, I am honoured to Chair of Advisory Board of the Payment Association, where we continue to shape an inclusive, diverse, competitive and innovative marketplace. I’m hugely proud that our industry provides convenient, inclusive and affordable access for better outcomes for all.
With the pace at which the fintech sector is racing, I look forward to us creating further growth and prosperity together, through our board of industry leaders; our community of members and the wider financial services ecosystem. To drive innovation, we must attract the best talent into the sector and the route to achieve this is through education, education, education!

FinTechFinancial RegulationGrowth StrategiesPaymentsStrategic VisionInternational Development+3

Deputy Chair of the Advisory Board

Jan 2018 – May 2023 · 5 yrs 4 mos

FinTechFinancial RegulationGrowth StrategiesPaymentsStrategic Vision

Pannovate

Group CEO (interim)

Mar 2022 – Jan 2023 · 10 mos · London, England, United Kingdom

System PerformanceKey Performance IndicatorsFinTechFinancial RegulationGrowth StrategiesStrategic Vision+3

Global processing services

2 roles

Group Chief Commercial Officer

Jan 2020 – Feb 2022 · 2 yrs 1 mo

System PerformanceKey Performance IndicatorsFinTechFinancial RegulationGrowth StrategiesPayments+5

Chief Commercial Officer

Sep 2017 – Jan 2020 · 2 yrs 4 mos

System PerformanceKey Performance IndicatorsFinTechFinancial RegulationGrowth StrategiesPayments+5

The inclusion foundation

Chair Of The Board Of Directors

Sep 2019 – Present · 6 yrs 8 mos · London, England, United Kingdom

The Inclusion Foundation is a dedicated not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) aiming to improve the lives of millions. Our mission is for the industry to play their part in giving every person in the UK access to financial services and lift those least fortunate in society out of the poverty trap. We will do this by providing better access to information on financial services that’s more inclusive and signpost people to the right products.
We aim to achieve this as an industry through lobbying key stakeholders in government, commerce and consumer groups, as well as offering the banking world a wide range of vital services so they have the tools to get on board.

Strategic VisionThought LeadershipStrategy Execution

B.yond digital

Co-Founder & Director

May 2019 – Present · 7 yrs · London, Singapore, Dubai

Key Performance IndicatorsFinTechPaymentsStrategic VisionStrategy Execution

Signpostnow

Co-Founder

Sep 2017 – Sep 2019 · 2 yrs · London, United Kingdom

SignpostNow is a not for profit founded to provide guidance for people struggling to get access to banking and financial services. SignpostNow compares and benchmarks the market and is free to use.

FinTech

Fifth dimension digital ltd

Non Executive Board Member

Sep 2015 – Sep 2019 · 4 yrs · London, United Kingdom

Non-Exec Director at Fifth Dimension - the marketing agency for Europe's emerging payments sector. As specialists in e-money and payments, Fifth Dimension offer marketing, consultancy, product development and affiliate networks for the Emerging Payments Sector.

Bottomline technologies

2 roles

Head of Business Development

Jun 2014 – Aug 2017 · 3 yrs 2 mos · Reading, United Kingdom

FinTech

Business Development Manager EMEA

Apr 2008 – Apr 2012 · 4 yrs

FinTechPayments

Accesspay - payment automation experts

Co-Founder & VP Global Sales

Apr 2012 – May 2014 · 2 yrs 1 mo · London, United Kingdom

AccessPay is an editor of cloud based Global Payments and Cash Management solutions. Our applications integrate seamlessly into back office systems and ERPs and offer our clients intuitive user experience with the peace of mind and resilience of a fully hosted solution.

System PerformanceKey Performance IndicatorsFinTechGrowth StrategiesPaymentsStrategic Vision+3