CEO Today United Kingdom Awards

57 www.ceotodaymagazine.com CEO Today United Kingdom Awards 2018 FINANCIAL SERVICES Noel Moran CEO of Prepaid Financial Services Noel Moran is CEO at a FinTech called PFS. He left school at 17 with no formal qualifications. Now, his company has recorded revenues of €50.4 million in 2017, an increase in revenue for 10 consecutive years. He is eyeing an IPO in 2019. His €1,000,000 Innovation Fund has attracted pitches from four continents and is a successful incubator. He recently achieved a triple crown of wins by beating 112,000 companies to win one of the world’s biggest Digital Technology prizes. He immediately followed this up by winning two more highly prestigious awards - an Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Europe and this wonderful honour from CEO Today. His name will be officially unveiled as a European Entrepreneur of the Year winner at the World Economic Forum (WEF) gathering in Davos, Switzerland next January. How would you describe your style of leadership? I would never ask someone to do something I would not do myself. That is core to me. I am a detail- centric person in most aspects, but I am also alright with a high- level plan as well. If we are going to do something, I want to see the details at some point, and I want to understand them to make sure I can give real input or advice. I like to have my department heads brief me on what is going on in their area. I can also be direct and there is no point in me hiding that behind any insincerity or fluffy words. I will tell my colleagues how it is, and I expect the same back from them. It is better to be open and honest with each other; that way we can better solve problems or come up with initiatives. If I am heading down the wrong path, I need my team to be strong enough to tell me. If I have hired senior managers, I expect them to think and come up with the way forward. There is little or no point in me hiring great people then telling them how to do their job. If I feel things need tweaking or major surgery, I am hoping that my teams have already reached the same conclusion and come up with a change of plan or strategy. I will give input into that, but I expect my colleagues to be telling me, as opposed to me telling them. My role is also to encourage and enable my teams to innovate. The recent €1 Million Innovation Fund was probably the most refreshing project in business I have done. The breadth of submissions from internal staff was unbelievable and we will certainly be taking some of those forward as new products or potentially even new entities. Above all, I want my employees to enjoy coming to work and the social environment is critical, I believe, to the success of my company. I cannot take the same approach with every individual, but a common insight would be to get to know my team and to understand their motivations. IPO Momentum Builds for Europe’s Flying FinTech Lunchtime on a Friday was the moment that the owners of PFS chose to simultaneously inform all employees in four offices in three countries that they were eyeing an IPO. Staff were delighted but it was not altogether unexpected, given a steady track record of financial achievement in the last decade from one of the most celebrated payment solution providers in Europe. Prepaid Financial Services Limited (PFS) has bucked the trend in an innovation-centric industry by returning profits for 10 consecutive years. Upon reflection, it is a staggering milestone considering that the majority of FinTechs remain unprofitable and are in danger of running out of steam when funding rounds dry up. This technology company has managed to thrive with no institutional investment to date. According to Moran: “We have worked hard over the years to become a challenger in Europe and one of Mastercard’s fastest- growing electronic money issuers. Delivering an IPO will be by far our biggest and boldest move to date. I am confident that this will set us apart from all our competitors across Europe.” Peer Review: Along the way, PFS has collected a string of industry awards