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Seccl names Tom Harris as new chief technology officer

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2 days ago

September 17, 2024

Seccl names Tom Harris as new chief technology officer

Octopus-owned embedded investment platform Seccl has appointed seasoned technologist Tom Harris to the role of chief technology officer (CTO).

Harris will be responsible for leading Seccl’s technology vision, with executive accountability for all aspects of the company’s engineering, data and information security functions.

He joins from ClearBank, where he led the expansion of the technology team from 40 to over 300 employees in the past five years.

During his tenure, he significantly contributed to the bank’s growth and profitability, scaling its technical operations from processing just a few payments a day to handling millions of transactions.

In this role, Harris was key to providing technology and products that continue to support the fintech sector and facilitating growth for companies such as Tide, Coinbase, Truelayer and Etoro.

Prior to ClearBank, Harris gained technology leadership experience leading at organisations such as Just Eat where he experienced Just Eat’s IPO and technology growth to become a FTSE100 company.

In total, he has more than 20 years of engineering experience working with high-scale, successful cloud and data platforms.

He is also co-founder of Build Circle, a successful software engineering consultancy, working with companies like Zopa, Allica Bank, PayPoint, Moonpig covering Tech and the E-commerce industry.

Commenting on his appointment, Harris said: “I’m excited to join Seccl and become part of a company at the forefront of transforming wealth management.

“My experience with ClearBank’s cash ISA has shown me that the sector is ripe for change, and Seccl’s commitment to placing customers at the centre of its strategy is evident.

“I’ve been genuinely impressed by the expertise and dedication of everyone I’ve met here, all focused on creating a superior product.

“Our industry, like others before it, is going to be transformed through the adoption of modern technology.

“Seccl is incredibly well-positioned to lead this shift by offering innovative solutions that empower forward-thinking firms to develop the investment propositions of the future. I’m eager to get started.”

Seccl chief executive David Ferguson said: “Technology leadership is absolutely central to us building a product that helps more people to invest and invest well. Tom is completely aligned to the Seccl mission and I can’t wait to start working with him.

“I have full confidence that his leadership and fresh perspective is going to have a massive impact on our future success and changing a broken industry.”

Seccl has grown to 145 people with 45% of those roles in product and engineering, working in a cross-functional pod structure to deliver great customer outcomes.

The company has made over 900 deployments so far this year and the business has doubled in size three times over the last three years.

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