Wise Appoints Former NICE CEO Barak Eilam as Chair Designate to Drive Global Scaling

Wise Group plc has appointed Barak Eilam as Non-Executive Director and Chair Designate, signaling a shift toward enterprise-scale leadership as the fintech giant matures. For the industry, this transition highlights the increasing priority of cloud-based infrastructure and operational scaling as cross-border payment providers move from disruptive startups to established global financial institutions.

What was announced

Barak Eilam joins the Board of Directors immediately, with the intention of succeeding David Wells as Chair. Wells, who has served as Chair since 2021 and originally joined the board in 2019, will remain in a supportive role until April 2027 to facilitate an orderly transition. Eilam will also take on the role of Chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance committee. The appointment brings a veteran of the enterprise technology sector into the fold; Eilam spent 25 years at NICE, a Nasdaq-listed firm, where he rose from engineer to Chief Executive Officer. During his decade-long tenure as CEO from 2014 to 2024, he oversaw the company’s pivot to a cloud-based model serving thousands of enterprises worldwide.

His current board portfolio includes positions at FactSet, CCC Intelligent Solutions, and Similarweb, and he previously served on the board of Payoneer. The leadership change comes at a time of significant scale for Wise. Since Wells joined in 2019, the company’s customer base has grown from 6 million to nearly 19 million. Kristo Käärmann, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Wise, noted that Eilam’s operator mindset and history of scaling global cloud enterprise software are key assets as the company continues to build what it describes as the network for the world’s money. The firm has evolved from a consumer-focused remittance tool into a dual-listed entity that provides infrastructure to some of the world’s largest banking institutions.

"Wise is one of the most distinctive and important technology companies in global financial services. The team has built an extraordinary business by fundamentally improving how people and businesses move money across borders, combining a strong customer proposition with a technology-driven and highly-scalable model. I see a significant opportunity ahead to build on that foundation, expand Wise’s impact globally, and create substantial long-term value for customers and owners. I’m excited to work with the Board and leadership team as Wise enters its next phase of growth."

Barak Eilam, Chair Designate.

The companies involved

Wise Group plc is a global technology company that builds infrastructure to move and manage money across borders. Since its inception, the firm has focused on creating a technology-driven, scalable model to improve how people and businesses transfer capital internationally. The company has reached a significant level of market maturity, currently serving nearly 19 million customers and partnering with some of the largest banks in the world. As a dual-listed entity, Wise operates as a major player in the global financial services sector, moving beyond its origins as a consumer tool to become a provider of enterprise-grade financial technology.

The company’s leadership transition involves Barak Eilam, who brings experience from NICE, a Nasdaq-listed technology firm. At NICE, Eilam served as Chief Executive Officer for a decade, leading its transformation into a cloud-based enterprise leader. His background also includes board-level roles at FactSet, CCC Intelligent Solutions, Similarweb, and Payoneer, providing a breadth of experience in scaling technology businesses within the public markets. This background is particularly relevant as Wise navigates the complexities of being a public company while maintaining its focus on high-growth technology solutions for the movement of money across a global user base.

What this means

The appointment of a Chair with a deep background in enterprise cloud software suggests that the era of fintech as a disruptor is giving way to fintech as the standard infrastructure. By selecting a leader who transformed a Nasdaq-listed firm into a cloud powerhouse, Wise is signaling that the primary competition in the sector is no longer just other remittance apps, but the core technology providers of the global banking system. This move puts pressure on traditional incumbents to accelerate digital transformations or risk losing market share to high-scale platforms. The transition period until 2027 raises questions about how the board will balance immediate growth with long-term governance stability.