Branch International, a San Francisco-based fintech with operations across Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and India, has announced the appointment of Seun Olafusi as Global Head of People, effective immediately.
Seun, a veteran of human resources for over a decade, brings years of experience in executive leadership and delivering value in diverse sectors including Fintech, Technology, Aviation, and Financial Services.
Matt Flannery, Branch Co-founder & CEO, said, “I am delighted to have Seun lead People Ops at Branch International on a global level. People operations is a strategic business function at Branch International and a key growth engine for the company’s journey to a profitable business model. With extensive experience in both the financial services and technology sectors, she will not only help accelerate our transformation strategy but will accelerate further growth across all our key markets”.
“We are witnessing a major shift in the way businesses drive the people and culture for growth. At Branch, our focus is on innovating and harnessing the power of humanizing systems to consistently attract, engage, develop and retain the best talents. I am confident that Seun will help sustain the culture and environment that will make all our people proud to work at Branch International”, Matt added.
Before joining Branch International, Seun was responsible for setting up and developing the people operations function at start-ups and pan-regional companies such as Softcom and Uber in Nigeria. Upon joining Branch International over four years ago, Seun served as Head of People at Branch Nigeria where she kick-started the people operations function, successfully building and growing the team significantly.
In her new role as Global Head of People, Seun will shape the company’s strategic people direction globally with a strong focus on leveraging technology to support inclusion. She will oversee the critical functions of over 250+ employees across all of Branch’s operating regions. These functions include people strategy, global talent acquisition, performance management, employee engagement, learning & development, process improvement, and much more, all with the end goal of enriching the Branch culture and contributing to the company’s overall performance.
Furthermore, Seun will also lead an ecosystem of people and communities, corporate affairs, and workplace resources. This alignment of expertise and functions will enable a holistic approach to cater to the well-being of employees, sustain trust with key external stakeholder groups and extend Branch International’s reach to create an immeasurable impact across its communities.
Commenting on her appointment, Seun expressed her commitment to this new role saying: “I am thrilled to be taking up this new role at Branch International, particularly on a global scale. I feel privileged to be a part of our transformation journey to support the team in building capabilities that unleash market potential and accelerate growth, making Branch a great place to work”. Seun is a Senior Certified Professional by the Society for Human Resource Management USA and an alumnus of Covenant University, Nigeria.
With over 40 million downloads across Africa and India, Branch continues to redefine digital finance as the platform with product features such as instant loans, seamless money transfers, bill payments, and investment. The company also remains passionate about its employee well being, offering an array of benefits including fully paid parental leave (6 months for mothers and 3 months for fathers & adoptive parents), remote work for all employees, a monthly work-from-home stipend alongside a home office setup budget, periodic mental health days, an annual allowance towards learning and development amongst others