Wise has appointed Barak Eilam as a Non-Executive Director and Chair Designate, according to a stock exchange notice on 13 October.
Eilam will succeed David Wells, who joined the board in 2019 and has been Chair since 2021. Wells will step down as Chair and as a Director in April 2027. Eilam will chair the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.
Eilam spent 25 years at NICE, the software company listed on Nasdaq, starting as an engineer and serving as Chief Executive from 2014 to 2024. He sits on the boards of FactSet, CCC Intelligent Solutions and Similarweb, and previously served on the board of Payoneer.
Kristo Käärmann, Wise’s cofounder and Chief Executive, said Eilam brings “years of hands-on experience building and scaling enterprise technology”. Wise had 6 million customers when Wells joined the board and has nearly 19 million today, Käärmann said.
Digital Trade Outlook’s View: An Enterprise Chair for an Infrastructure Business
Wise picked a software chief executive, not a banker. That fits a company increasingly selling its rails to banks through Wise Platform. Banks that rent those rails get a more focused supplier. Banks still building their own cross-border stack now face a rival run by a career enterprise seller.
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