GoCardless goes green: Fintech bolsters ESG efforts with two top hires

ESG is the acronym on everyone’s lips at the moment and GoCardless has doubled down on its commitments.

The payments provider has appointed Ben Knight as head of environmental sustainability and Lena Tailor as director of diversity and inclusion (D&I) to strengthen its ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) pledge.

Knight joins GoCardless from space and telecommunications company OneWeb, and will lead the fintech’s drive towards reaching net zero as a founding member of the Tech Zero initiative. 

“The role of fintech in the net-zero transition—and wider sustainable development—is huge,” the incoming environment head said.

“My aim is to develop a sector-leading strategy that is ambitious and transparent, delivers measurable change aligned with science, and helps create value for customers, society and the natural environment.”

GoCardless’ new D&I head Tailor joins the fintech from Innocent Drinks, where she spent nine years in various roles, including driving their people and culture agenda.

At GoCardless, Tailor will lead the company’s D&I efforts and propose new and innovative ways to meet the fintech’s targets and advocate for inclusion in the hiring process.

“Although the tech industry is known for being innovative on many fronts, it’s currently not a leader in D&I,” Tailor said.

“In this role, I hope to make diversity and inclusion inherent in how we do business and for everyone at GoCardless—to know our strategy and talk about it with pride internally and externally; to be equipped and comfortable to have brave, safe and open conversations; and to be inspired to make big and small changes to build more diverse and inclusive environments everywhere,” she added.