Who are the faces of October?
For our last round of “Faces of October” we interviewed : Marc Sebag, Chief Underwriter / Recovery – Europe, and Matthieu de Fréminville, Head of Inside Operations.
Marc Sebag, Chief Underwriter / Recovery – Europe
What do you do at October?
I am Chief Underwriter / Recovery – Europe – focusing on supporting the credit, ops and investors teams with respect to larger/complex deals. On top of my ‘CURE’ position , I am the CRO for Spain as well.
What did you do before joining October?
I’ve spent most of my professional career in international financial organizations (ING Bank , Rabobank , GE Capital , CIT ), mainly on launching business units with a focus on risk related activities.
What aspect of your work are you most passionate about?
It is all about interactions / coordination with people to leverage good ideas / initiatives to make the business growing fast in a lean and mean way.
What are the 3 skills that you definitely need in your role?
- Listening to get ideas from the team to improve process and products offering
- Communication to get people on board on new initiatives and as well be aware of what we are doing
- Velocity / Energy to be up to speed with a constant mindset of ‘Why Not’ to propose the suitable product offering
What does diversity and inclusion mean to you?
It is about being open minded, listening to others, respecting people and combining all those items leads to get the best of everyone and a high level of energy within the team. It is a way to make people growing fast and happy with their day to day work life.
What was your first touchpoint with the digital world?
Back in 2000 with GE Capital and in 2010 with CIT, we developed a fully automated process for SME with a “Time to Yes” for small tickets in less than 1 minute and funding with 48 hours. Technology for small tickets is absolutely a key success driver.
How do you think technology will impact the industry in the next years?
The impact will be huge from a decision consistency and transparency standpoint: clients will know from the start what to expect and how quick they can get an offer in a smart, lean and mean way and technology is the only way to get to this point.
What do you do in your spare time?
Playing piano is a great pleasure and more importantly improvisation. Besides, rowing every week + some tennis matches are my favorite outdoor activities. Finally, travelling in a wild mode is something I like the best …
What kind of job would you do if you were not in Fintech?
Launching new business with passion and energy has been always the driver of my past life. I must admit that I am more than satisfied to work in the current environment which is about exploring new fields to make traditional things in a different way. Out of Fintech, running an hotel with the same mindset could be something I could consider in the future.
Matthieu de Fréminville, Head of Inside Operations
What do you do at October?
I’m responsible of Inside Operations, meaning managing the internal tools, adapting the processes to make sure that everything is going smoothly and empowering the team with useful reporting.
What did you do before joining October?
I have been in audit, worked in a bank and then did a bit of consulting.
What aspect of your work are you most passionate about?
Data, people and tools.
What are the 3 skills that you definitely need in your role?
I would say: adaptation, multitasking and a good understanding of what people do and how they do it. Technically, I’m using a lot of different tools, learned Salesforce admin on the job and I’m developing the base for reporting on SQL
What does diversity and inclusion mean to you?
It feels like a legacy issue that we should have solved a long time ago. I’m born in ’85 and it seems that we have made good progress when I look back at my parents generation and I hope it’s not something that millennials will talk about because it will not be an issue anymore.
What was your first touchpoint with the digital world?
I would say in high school trying to get the last episode of random series with Kazaa or talking to friends via ICQ.
At work October was my first real touchpoint with the digital world. As a consultant, I had to deploy an ERP, so it was related to the tech world but I would not consider it as October’s experience.
How do you think technology will impact the industry in the next years?
I’m not really into the “technology will replace human” thing, but I’m convinced that technology will empower us and help us be more efficient and focussed on things that really matters (it’s already the case so I’m not taking a lot of risks here 😛).
What do you do in your spare time?
I’m quite busy at home with 3 young kids but I love to travel and I really enjoy biking.
What kind of job would you do if you were not in Fintech?
I don’t really know but it would most probably be boring 😂.