Leadership Questionnaire

Name: Rosie Hewat

Title:  Group Chief People Officer

Organisation: Kuda

About:

Rosie Hewat is the Group Chief People Officer at Kuda. Kuda is a fintech company on a mission to make financial services accessible, affordable and rewarding for every African on the planet. Kuda is giving Africans around the world a better alternative to traditional finance by delivering free money transfers, smart budgeting and instant access to credit through digital devices. Kuda will be launching its UK offering in November 2022.

Rosie has over two decades of HR & People Operations experience, with over a decade of that spent in the Fintech space. She specialises in building, growing, scaling, and leading within innovative, ambitious, and purpose-driven organisations like Funding Circle, Neyber, Pockit and We Make Change, and excels in the strategic design, building, and implementation of compliant infrastructures, processes, and initiatives that facilitate high-performing, inclusive, engaged, and diverse people teams.

Rosie joined Kuda in August 2021 with a focus on building and growing a compliant, resilient, high-impact, accountable, inclusive, and high-performing global organisation as a foundation for their next phase of growth and since joining Kuda, has grown the team across 6 countries and counting.

Rosie holds qualifications in Human Resources Management from the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development), Payroll & Pensions Management from the CIPP (Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals) and PRINCE 2 certification for Project Management. She also holds a qualification in Health & Safety in the Workplace.

She is a Board Advisor to a few companies, and an Angel Investor, and was also the Chair of the Operations & Finance Committee of the Fintech Industry Risk Management Council for 18 months. She is a Mentor in the CIPD’s Steps Ahead Mentoring programme as well as the Leaders Plus programme, a social enterprise dedicated to supporting leaders with babies and young children to progress in their careers.

1. What have you found most challenging (and exciting) as a CEO or senior leader? 

My role is Group Chief People Officer and ironically I find People to be the most challenging and exciting part of my role. Getting to know the team, helping to build the team, and supporting the team with both personal and professional ambitions and challenges.

It’s a challenging role (and career path), but it can be very fulfilling and rewarding.

2. What was your journey to becoming a CEO executive or entrepreneur especially in the last decade? Please briefly tell your story?

As a black woman in the Fintech and financial services space, I have seen quite a shift from very visible discrimination and exclusion during my career in the last decade, to the world, we live in today where people are actually aware of (and at times make conscious efforts to address) discrimination of all kinds, and be more including. There is more willingness to learn about microaggressions and subtextual racism, and inclusion is no longer just a tickbox word, companies are actively striving to be more inclusive now. Wasn’t always this way.

I once had a role where a senior manager in that company told me I should be happy that I am allowed to even be invited to a senior meeting as a black woman. And how I must be so proud of this… ironically they thought this was a compliment, but it was rather insulting and patronising – considering I was supposed to be a senior member of the team at the time. In summary, my journey has not been easy but I was determined to have my work and input recognised.

3. What’s a most recent significant leadership lesson you’ve learned which transformed the way you lead/operate?

It’s ok to rest! There will always be work to do and there will always be some work crisis that crops up from time to time. After realising this, I don’t encourage my team to do long hours or work weekends. We are all more effective when we are working to capacity whilst being actively aware of our physical and mental state, and knowing when to stop and take a pause.

4. What is your secret to organising/managing your work, your role (or portfolio of roles) and your personal life every single day from waking up moments to bedtime?

Keeping my personal life separate from my working life. I am quite disciplined with this as I have children. I work hard and set myself a deadline for the day. Once the deadline hits, I stop and switch to mummy mode. And will not discuss work until the next allocated work-is-now-allowed time.

As an Executive, I don’t work typical 9-5. I sometimes start working at 5 or 6 am and end at 9 PM depending on what we are focusing on in the business at that time. But even in crunch periods, I still set a deadline for the day. I may set an 11 Hour max working day. I pay attention to when I start work, and once that 11th hour hits, I go offline.

5. What are the important topics and trends on your mind these days, that you feel impact business, the leaders and their journey and areas they need to focus on?

The cost of living crisis – is impacting businesses and workers. I have to admit, as we are now in December and it just seems grimmer, it is concerning as I think about my team and how they too must be wondering when will it end.

It may seem like an external factor, but it is causing strikes to occur around the UK with the NHS nurses striking for the first time in 100 years, as well as other key workers. The avian flu has seen an increase in the process for staple foods like eggs and energy bills are through the roof.

I always think about my people as these types of situations may cause them stress, which in turn may mean less productivity and higher stress levels, and then unplanned exits and disruptions to business.

6. What is one book or film that has had a significant impact on your leadership (both personally and in business) so far?

Lord of The Ring Trilogy – The pursuit of power, the importance of friendship and teamwork, doing the right thing…

7. How do you build leadership capacity and embed growth mindset in businesses and people?

By leading by example and recognising when training is required and facilitating that.

8. What is an experience or story you can share that comes to mind from your time as a senior leader/executive that resulted in a highly positive outcome ?

I am a mentor and whilst I can’t talk in detail about my mentoring activities, I have been very pleased to see how I have helped others to achieve their aspirations and dreams through coaching and guidance.

9. What is one piece of wisdom you would like to share?

Be the change you want to see in the world.

People often talk (and the more trendy the topic, the louder the voices), but actions will always speak louder than words.

Don’t just talk about change, be about it!