Inside Cadana with Josephine

Welcome to Inside Cadana! This is where we take you behind the scenes to meet the incredible people driving Cadana forward. Today, we’re shining the spotlight on Josephine, our Head of Compliance.

With a career spanning fintech and crypto; including a role at Binance, Josephine brings deep expertise to Cadana’s compliance efforts. In this episode, she shares what drew her to Cadana, how she stays ahead of the ever-changing regulatory landscape, and what motivates her to tackle the complex world of compliance.

Plus, we get a glimpse into her life beyond work; let’s just say if you’re into baking and Food Network marathons, you might have a lot in common with Josephine.

Let’s dive in;

Can you tell us a bit about your journey and what brought you to Cadana as our Head of Compliance?

I spent my career in fintechs and crypto. I was going to take some time off my last position when I was approached about this opportunity with Cadana to help build the compliance department. Being a startup addressing a real problem with cross border payments, this sounded like an exciting opportunity to make my contribution to the future of the company.

How do you stay updated with the constantly changing regulations in the fintech space?

I strongly rely on my LinkedIn network, both communities within LinkedIn that I am a part of, but also posts from colleagues in the industry, especially the legal community, who make it a point to keeping professionals like myself informed. I also subscribe to several associations that provide me with updates on the ever-changing regulatory landscape.

What motivates you to tackle the challenges that come with such a critical role in compliance?

The end user experience motivates me. I want to be a part of bringing a really great product that will make the user’s experience easy and rewarding.

Outside of work, what’s something people might be surprised to know about you?

I love to cook and bake - I do not watch the news or movies; I am glued to the Food Network.

What do you love most about working at Cadana, especially in leading our compliance efforts?

I really enjoy the people I work with and the openness within the culture for everyone to want to be better at what they do. There is no resistance to innovation or big ideas - people are willing to listen and are eager to make things happen.

If you could sit down and chat with anyone, living or from history, who would it be and why?

Frida Kahlo; I love her art and she lived such an interesting life for a female artist in Mexico, in the early 1900s. I would just want to hear her life story from her perspective and told through her voice.

Do you have any hobbies or passions you’ve recently picked up, or is there something you'd love to spend more time on outside of work?

I love spending time with my 3 kids; they are all in school activities like cheer and lacrosse, so we are pretty busy during the school year. Their cheer competitions and lacrosse tournaments are the highlight of my year.

What do you see as the biggest compliance challenge for fintech companies in the coming years?

I see open source AI being a compliance challenge in the future years; as we see what AI can do, using it responsibly by ensuring no preset bias in decision making and user data is secured, as well as performing audits on the AI decision making are amongst the bigger challenges.

What advice would you give to someone interested in pursuing a career in compliance?

Continuously learning is your responsibility; you cannot just be “qualified” you must educate yourself every day to stay qualified.