Fintech startup Petal has appointed Ali Heron, its head of engineering, as the company's new CTO.
NEW YORK, May 12, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Petal, a new kind of credit card company created to help people build credit and spend responsibly, announced today that it has named Ali Heron as its Chief Technology Officer.
Heron, who joined Petal a year ago as its Head of Engineering, is a proven leader with more than 20 years of experience in technology and finance.
Over the past year, Petal tripled its member base to more than 300,000 approved Petal cards (issued and funded by WebBank), its revenue has more than quadrupled, and the company launched Prism Data, a B2B service that opens Petal's underwriting technology to other fintechs, financial institutions and businesses.
Under Heron's guidance, Petal has rapidly scaled its technology and tech organization, with a focus not only on technical excellence but on diversity.
In the past year, Petal's Engineering team has more than doubled in size. Today, women hold more than a third of the roles on the Engineering team, and Petal's technology leadership is 50% women. And, with today's announcement, Heron is now one of the only women CTOs in the fintech space.
"Ali has built an exceptionally talented team whose innovations drive our business and whose diversity raises the bar in fintech," said Jason Gross, Petal's CEO and co-founder. "We're proud of that record, and proud to have such an accomplished leader on our team."
Before joining Petal, Heron worked for Two Sigma Investments, a leading financial sciences company where she served as a senior vice president, leading engineering teams in the use of data science and distributed computing to solve complex challenges in investment management. Prior to that, she ran teams working on HBO GO and HBO NOW, founded her own startup, and taught entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor of computer science at NYU. Heron spent the first ten years of her career with Microsoft, serving in engineering and product roles for advertising, mobile and MSN.
Heron received an MBA from TRIUM, a joint program between NYU Stern Business School, the London School of Economics (LSE) and HEC Paris School of Management, a MSE/BSE in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and also holds 16 patents. She lives in New York with her husband and two children.
About Petal:
Petal is a new kind of credit card company built to help people financially succeed (http://www.petalcard.com). Petal has pioneered cash flow underwriting, as an alternative to credit scores, to make credit more accessible, and offers a simple, modern digital experience that encourages members to build credit, avoid debt, and spend responsibly. Petal is based in New York, NY, and Richmond, VA. Petal credit cards are issued by WebBank, Member FDIC.
Media Contact
Matt Graves, Tripleshot Communications, 1 4152903503, [email protected]
SOURCE Petal
Share this article