About us

International payments to match your ambitions

Whatever you or your business does now, or will do in the future, we can help you make the most of your money.

What’s your next?

Who we are

WorldFirst was born back in 2004 by two innovators in a South London basement armed with ten years of banking experience, an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to provide customers a real alternative to the big banks. Since then, we’ve grown exponentially and with a global team around 600 strong, have become a market-leading, multi-award winning, bank-beating, rapidly-growing, fun-loving international payments company.

View our Global Executive Team
View our UK Management Team

Jonathan Quin

Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder

Graduated with Law and Accountancy degree from the University of Edinburgh. Started at Citibank as a trader and later headed the European sales of online FX trading products. Moved to RBS as the Head of Business Development in the Financial Markets Division. Co-founded WorldFirst in January 2004.

Kelly Jackson

Chief People Officer

Graduated from UCL with a degree in Psychology. Went travelling around South East Asia and Australasia before starting her HR career at QAS Limited, a subsidiary of Experian Plc. Most recently headed up the HR team at Stemcor Ltd, a privately-owned international steel trading company. Joined WorldFirst as Group HR Director in November 2014.

Reg Dhanjal

Group General Counsel and Compliance Officer

Reg joined WorldFirst in 2017 and has responsibility for our legal, compliance, risk, financial crime, internal audit and company secretariat teams. Prior to WorldFirst, Reg held a number of roles and was most recently a Partner at the law firm Pinsent Masons. Reg graduated with a Law degree from the University of Cambridge.

Jeff Parker

Managing Director, Asia Pacific

Jeff was previously on the executive board at OFX – formerly OzForex – most recently in the role of Chief Enterprise Officer with responsibility for growing the B2B business globally. He also gained considerable financial services experience as a director at Macquarie Bank where he worked for the Investments and Advisory division. Jeff is also an ACMA qualified management accountant.

Kerry Tremble

Chief Financial Officer

Kerry is Group CFO of WorldFirst. Kerry was previously Deputy Finance Director for Lloyds Retail Bank and a partner in KPMG’s Corporate and Investment Banking Consulting practice. In the latter role, he worked with global investment banks in a range of areas including Business & Operational Strategy and Financial & Risk Management.

Craige Pendleton-Browne

Chief Technology Officer

With over 25 years experience in technology roles, Craige has worked as CTO in both Australia and the UK. His most recent roles include CTO for News Digital Media, iCareHealth, and OFX, Australia’s leading fintech business. In his last three roles Craige has owned both product development and technology delivery. He is passionate about how digital technology and Agile product development can drive commercial success.

Tim Rudman

Chief Operating Officer

Graduated with a bachelor's degree in Finance, Marketing and International Business in South Africa. Following a brief stint working in marketing, moved to London in 2007. Joined WorldFirst in 2008 as the desk assistant in the online sellers team before taking on a variety of roles including Head of Operations and, ultimately, COO.

Danny Howe

Country manager UK and EMEA

Danny joined WorldFirst in 2011 on the Corporate Sales desk. He was promoted a year later to Deputy Head of Corporate Sales and then became the Head of Sales soon after, looking after sales for corporate, private and etailer desks. Prior to joining WorldFirst, Danny was in media sales selling corporate sponsorships to financial services companies and family offices. Danny grew up in Maidstone in Kent and still lives there.

Adam Ryan

Head of Marketing EMEA

Adam joined WorldFirst in August 2016 from Wiggle Ltd where he was Head of Group Sales, driving growth across its European territories. With over 10 years’ experience managing global e-commerce businesses, he understands the impact of currency volatility on profitability and the value of a bespoke currency strategy. Adam is passionate about increasing the reach of WorldFirst, connecting with and supporting customers with their currency needs.

Dionne Sawyerr

Head of People Partnering

With a BA honors degree in HR & Accounting, Dionne began her career in fashion buying working at Tesco and the Arcadia Group. Over the five years spent in this field, she gained invaluable business acumen skills which she has leveraged since transitioning into her HR career at WorldFirst in 2014. In 2015, Dionne became the UK HR Manager heading up a team of HR Business Partners. She is responsible for identifying and driving a range of HR initiatives across the business in addition to supporting the EMEA Management Team.

Alexa Lloyd-Owen

Regional Compliance Officer, EMEA

Joined WorldFirst in 2016 as Group Compliance Monitoring Manager before taking on the EMEA Regional Compliance Officer role in June 2017. Prior to joining WorldFirst, Alexa qualified as an internal auditor after joining BDO as a graduate and then moving to Citco which is where she made the transition from internal audit to compliance.

James Allington

Head of Operations EMEA

Attained a BSc in Finance & Economics from the University of Manchester Business School, working at investment services provider AJ Bell Securities, before joining WorldFirst in 2013. James has risen through the ranks, firstly building out our Middle Office function, before moving to more broadly Operational roles, as a Business Manager for the COO and now Head of Operations, EMEA.

Stephen Webb

Finance Business Partner

Bio to come

Look how far we've come

2004

Way back in April 2004 World First was born. In the basement of a house in Stockwell Jonathan Quin and Nick Robinson decided they were going to change how we change money. We also booked our first trade that month. And made a loss. Jabu Henson joined them 4 months later. He's still here as MD of our Asian offices, but more on that later.

2005

By the end of our first year we'd booked £43 million in trades. And by October that year we hit our first £100 million in transactions. In December the team had expanded to a hefty 8 members. And 7 of the 8 are still here!

2006

In January we outgrew our basement and moved to Crombie Mews in Battersea and used to enjoy meetings on our lovely roof terrace. That year we launched our Corporate desk with Alex Sullivan. Sir David Clementi (former Deputy Head of the Bank of England!) came aboard the good ship World First as our Senior Advisor. A couple of months later Elisabeth Dobson joined as head of our Private desk. December saw the start of our traditional team competition at our Christmas Party. The theme was "Strictly Come Dancing" with lots of tutus, Riverdancing and all round craziness... Check out the video here!

2007

We started out the year with 22 employees and by the end we'd almost doubled, with 40 World Firsters in the team. Needless to say by the end of the year we were starting to burst at the seams. We also hit £1 billion in transactions and champagne popped! The Christmas Party saw our "YuleTube" challenge, the winners took it out with an Eric Prydz spoof. Definitely not safe for public consumption!

2008

FSA authorisation was approved and we became the first foreign exchange broker in the UK to be able to sell currency options. We officially outgrew our old office and moved into our lovely new home in Regent House overlooking the Thames in Battersea. Nick Robinson also made the long long flight Down Under to open our second office, in Sydney. G'day to you! "FX Factor" was the theme of the Christmas Challenge and Marc Bertrand's team wowed and FX-ed up version of American Pie. Download and have a listen to the MP3 here.

2009

Speedy automated payments? Done. In January we made the first of many SWIFT payments. Fancy some more champagne? Why not, we hit £2 billion in transactions. And a few months later we were awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise. In October our World Firsters turned up decked out in pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. The first of many charity days to come. November saw us authorised as Payments Institution as well as our first appearance on Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track - position 53! This year's Christmas Challenge was a Dragon's Den and Apprentice Mash-up. Watch the winning idea here. Why this never took off as a real business will always be a mystery to us...

2010

Things were really starting to take off, in January we were awarded our first star with Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For. We also launched our online platform (over half our transactions go through this system now!). We love an opportunity to dress up, so Sports Relief in March saw some "interesting" ensembles around the office. We also won the Service Business of the Year via the Fast Growth Business Awards and were finalists in the National Business Awards for Customer Focus. In our private client survey 98% say they'd use us again and recommend us! Thanks guys :) In November we launched our new look and appeared for the 2nd year in the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track - position 65. The Christmas Challenge winner was a World First take on Alicia Keys' Empire State of Mind - amazing!

2011

We were on a roll - awarded our 2nd star with Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For - happy days! In April we hit £5 billion in transactions and Sir David became our Chairman. In July, 100% of respondents in our corporate client survey said they'd use us again and recommend us!!! We were beyond happy to learn that! Third year in a row on the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track - position 81. And some very questionable talent strutted their stuff at the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Challenge...

2012

Ended our 8th Financial Year with revenues just under £15 million, a big leap from our humble beginnings back in 2004! In June we celebrated our first World First wedding - Emily and Simon met at World First in 2008, awww. In September we took on the US with John Min and John Green opening our first US office in Washington D.C. We were announced winners of the National Business Awards Customer Focus Award in November and we teamed up with Childreach International to help build a school in Tanzania - go team!

2013

Started the year seeing stars - we were awarded 3 stars in the Best Companies Guide! At the end of February we'd made over 120,000 payments, then our Aussie team moved into bigger, brighter office and in September @World_First reached 9,000 followers on Twitter. Phew! Remember Jabu from back when we started? Well in October we opened our Singapore office and he's the MD. We also won The UK Customer Experience Award the same month. And by December the global World First team had cracked 200 employees! Our Christmas Challenge got social this year with each team making 15 second InstaVid #YuleTube.

2014

We turned 10 this year!!! The years have flown by and we now have over 300 employees worldwide. In May we took out the Customer Focus category at the European Business Awards hosted in Athens. Jabu opened up our 2nd Asian office, this time in Hong Kong. Summer time and we bid adieu to Regent House and moved into some fancy new digs in Millbank Tower, across the river from the MI6 (so James Bond!). In September we made our millionth trade!

2015

Another year, more new offices! World First’s story continued with our launch in Singapore, new offices in Hong Kong and Virginia, and a new frontier broken by setting up business in Austin, Texas. The awards just kept rolling in (not that we’re showing off!) with a place on the Real Business Hot 100 and a top 30 placing in The Sunday Times ‘International Track 200’. We visited some of our wonderful clients, and filmed their World First stories. From gin makers to home buyers, we heard some inspiring currency transfer tales (and came face-to-face with the biggest dog you’ve ever seen). And in the UK, the newest Mr. Man character – our very own Mr. First – hit big screens, billboards and adverts in tube stations, train stations and in magazines & newspapers. Have you seen him yet?

2016

Our busiest year yet! Across the world, we transferred more than £8.5 billion in over 137 countries from Australia to Zambia. In June, we opened an Amsterdam office, our very first in mainland Europe, bringing us to a grand total of six offices and over 600 staff (more to come!). October brought our inaugural Think Global event celebrating the opportunities of international trade, supported by UKTI and attended by Parliamentary Under-Secretary for International Trade, Mark Garnier MP. We launched a new service to help international sellers to sell in Japan, signed a platinum sponsorship deal with the Sydney Roosters and received the prestigious Queen's Award for International Trade. And most importantly, our clients kept showing us some love, giving us 98% positive feedback which meant we won the Feefo Gold Trusted Service award three years running!

So what are you waiting for?

If you need to make an international payment, look no further. Join the 280,000+ clients around the world who are benefitting from our services. Or feel free to give us a shout - a real person will answer your call, within 3 rings. Go on, give us a try. We think you'll like us.