U.S. fintech Plaid taps Booking.com veteran to lead its European expansion

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LONDON — Financial technology firm Plaid has hired Ripsy Bandourian, a long-time Booking.com executive, to head up its European operations.

Bandourian joined Plaid last week and is working out of its Dutch offices in Amsterdam. She'll be tasked with leading the San Francisco-based start-up's expansion in continental Europe. Keith Grose, formerly Plaid's head of international, now focuses solely on running the U.K. business.

The Armenian-born businesswoman brings a mix of experience to the world of fintech. She originally studied molecular biology at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, before moving to New York to take on a quantitative analyst job at Goldman Sachs. After a consulting stint with McKinsey, she moved to London to work at Apple's European division.

Bandourian joined Booking.com in 2014, working for the online travel platform for more than eight years in a variety of roles focusing on product and marketing. She was most recently vice president of global accommodation partnerships, overseeing Booking.com's relationships with hotel partners.

Bandourian told CNBC her reasons for joining Plaid were «personal» just as much as they were professional.

«I've lived my life on three different continents,» Bandourian said. «And there is absolutely no way for me to take my financial history with me. There are no tools, there are no ways to make it easier. And this is a use case.»

Plaid's technology allows fintech companies like Venmo and Robinhood to connect to customers' bank accounts so that users can log in and share their financial data securely. It's part of a fast-growing trend known as «open banking.»

The company, which also offers payment tools in some markets, says it's planning an