Railsr hires former Mastercard chair Rick Haythornthwaite as first chair

Embedded finance and banking-as-a-service (BaaS) fintech Railsr, formerly Railsbank, is set to gain former Mastercard chair Rick Haythornthwaite as its first chairman.

Rick Haythornthwaite will become Railsr’s first chairman

Confirming the news on LinkedIn, Railsr CEO Nigel Verdon welcomed Haythornthwaite “who will join Railsr as chairman and is my new boss”.

“Thanks to one of our loyal investors Mo El Husseiny of Ventura Capital who introduced us to Rick,” Verdon adds.

Haythornthwaite, who currently chairs online supermarket Ocado and roadside recovery service the AA, has also chaired Network Rail and energy firm Centrica.

He was chairman of the board at Mastercard for 14 years between 2006 and 2020 and started his career at BP, where he spent 16 years.

Railsr raised $70 million in its latest funding round last summer as it aims to expand across Europe, Asia Pacific and North America.

Last year, the company appointed John Hammond as its new chief commercial officer (CCO) and named Stuart Gregory as its new chief product officer (CPO).