Chari, a Moroccan B2B commerce and fintech company, has appointed Aurélien Pichon as an independent director on its Board of Directors.
Pichon most recently served as Global Head of Client Operations and Services at Visa Inc. He led a global organisation of nearly 5,000 people in that role.
Aurélien Pichon brings global payments experience
Pichon moved into the global role at Visa in 2024. Before that, he headed Operations and Client Services for Visa’s Central Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
He has spent two decades working across technology, data and payments. His career includes roles at Thomson Reuters, Google and Visa.
The source states that Pichon is based in the Middle East. His experience also includes work across emerging markets, Asia and Latin America.
Chari board role will focus on payments and operations
At Chari, Pichon will serve in an advisory and strategic capacity. His board mandate will cover payments, institutional relationships and operating scale.
First, Pichon will bring experience in managing payments operations at scale. This includes direct responsibility for client delivery across emerging markets.
Second, Pichon will contribute relationships across issuers, acquirers, processors and regulators in Africa and the Middle East. Chari said these relationships are relevant to its focus on institutional partnerships.
Finally, Pichon will bring experience in building and managing large service organisations. Chari is expanding its infrastructure services for third party clients.
Chari expands agency banking and fintech infrastructure
The appointment comes as Chari expands beyond its original retailer distribution business.
The company now operates in agency banking and fintech infrastructure as a service. Through agency banking, Chari enables neighbourhood shops to provide cash in, cash out and other financial services.
Chari also makes its financial infrastructure available to banks, telcos, corporates, fintechs, startups and financial institutions through its fintech infrastructure as a service business.
The company said its agency banking network is growing from thousands to tens of thousands of points of service.
Pichon joins Chari’s senior governance team
Pichon’s appointment adds payments and operations experience to Chari’s Board of Directors. His mandate covers areas linked to the company’s expansion into financial infrastructure.
For Pichon, the board role provides direct exposure to payments infrastructure in high growth and cash heavy markets, according to the company.
Aurélien Pichon said Chari is building financial infrastructure that reaches merchants at the local level. He also said his career has involved working with institutions serving small and medium businesses.
Ismael Belkhayat, CEO and Co founder of Chari, said the company sought experience in payments operations at the scale it intends to reach. He also pointed to Pichon’s experience across institutional and merchant sides of the business.
About Chari
Chari was founded in 2020 by Ismael Belkhayat and Sophia Alj. The company is headquartered in Casablanca, Morocco.
Chari digitises traditional proximity retailers across Francophone Africa. It also provides financial services, including agency banking and payments infrastructure.
The company is an alumnus of Y Combinator.
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