Exclusive: Bud plucks new commercial chief from Mambu

Open Banking provider Bud has bolstered its leadership team with a senior hire from core banking platform Mambu,AltFi can reveal.

James Barker, formerly commercial director of EMEA at Mambu, is taking on the newly created role of chief commercial officer at Bud.

The hire is reportedly in preparation for Bud scaling up its commercial operations in 2021, with Barker supporting the teams which look after the fintech’s customers.

“One of the holes that a lot of technology providers fall into is they focus very inwardly on the technology,” Barker told AltFi when asked about his decision to join Bud.

“I think what Ed and George have is an appreciation that it's all about the customer experience and trying to find new ways to use this transactional data and these new capabilities to materially step forward.”

“That’s very appealing to me.”

So far Bud has won a handful of key client wins, including a global deal with HSBC and its challenger brand First Direct, as well as investment from the likes of Goldman Sachs and Sabadell.

Earlier this year the fintech also launched open banking payments, with Blockchain.com as its launch customer for these payments which are more simple and faster to initiate than traditional bank transfers.

“There's a whole raft of new use cases being discovered,” said Barker. “This is uncharted territory, but we’re finding tangible ways to really enhance that customer experience all the time.”