Travelex names ex-HSBC exec Jackie Uhi as global retail director
Travelex, a UK-based foreign exchange company specialising in international payments and travel-related financial services, has appointed former HSBC exec Jackie Uhi to the newly created position of global retail director.
Jackie Uhi, global retail director, Travelex
She will be responsible for driving the strategy and expansion of the company’s retail portfolio, which currently includes more than 1,110 stores and 900 ATMs across 20 countries worldwide.
Travelex recognises its retail operations as a key area of focus, and says that the division accounts for approximately 80% of its total global revenues.
Uhi, an Australian national, boasts over 30 years of experience in the retail banking markets of the UK and the APAC region. She has held a variety of senior roles across the sector, and claims to specialise in strategic leadership and operations.
She joins Travelex from HSBC, where she held a variety of roles over a six-and-a-half-year tenure, including head of mortgage, protection and wealth distribution, and most recently, head of UK distribution.
Prior to joining HSBC in 2017, Uhi served as a director for Barclays, Lloyds TSB Bank and ANZ, Australia’s largest institutional bank.
Speaking on the appointment, Travelex CEO Richard Wazacz says Uhi joins “at a time of increased investment, expansion and innovation in our retail operations”, and describes the move as “an ambitious statement about our next stage of planned growth”.
As part of this growth plan, Cameron Hume, who has served as the company’s group chief commercial officer for the last two years, is to transition into the role of global wholesale director, working to expand the company’s engagement with banks in Asia, specifically in regard to the provision of wholesale banknotes.
Wazacz says that together, Uhi and Hume will be tasked with driving “the resurgent growth and increased profitability of the group across all the geographies we operate in”.
The news comes after Travelex struck a $110 million refinancing deal last month. Based on a five-year term, the company says it plans to leverage the facility to repay its existing $61 million term loan facility and further invest in its retail operations.
