Head of financial crime
As the rapid globalization of companies and the digitization of money movement accelerated over the last few years, Featurespace recognized that there was an opportunity to adapt its fraud-prevention solutions for the anti-money-laundering market.
Araliya Sammé joined Featurespace in 2017 and was just beginning to grow in her executive role at her new employer when she was tasked with building a completely new line of business from the ground up. Sammé, who is originally from Sri Lanka, grew up in France and lives today in London, is no stranger to change. She relished the opportunity to build something from scratch.
Some of the initial steps involved interviewing AML industry experts to uncover product gaps that Featurespace could fill. This was followed by Sammé working with Featurespace analytics, product and engineering teams to create solutions that could leverage the company’s existing technology.
The new AML unit and its go-to-market strategy were focused on delivering addressing one of the most overlooked parts of the AML business — transaction monitoring. This approach would give the new Featurespace unit a unique value proposition.
“I was presented with a fantastic chance to create a new revenue line for the company and needed to find something that we could uniquely offer to our clients,” said Sammé, an honoree in PaymentsSource's Most Influential Women in Payments NEXT. “In this effort, I had to take the sponsoring executives, as well as the new members of my team, on a business-building journey that had a rather steep learning curve. It involved researching the market and listening to clients to help create a product and strategy that would work for us.”
In an effort to gauge market interest, Sammé created a viable product proposition and began to pitch it to clients. During the process of building the business, the pandemic struck, creating a new, unforeseen challenge that stood in the way of success.
"Initially, I was concerned about how my team would cope with mandatory remote work,” noted Sammé. “Some of them have young children, and others had just entered the workforce after graduating from college. And of course, we've never seen a switch to remote work at this scale, so there was no precedent to reference.”
One of Araliya's greatest strengths is her ability to walk into any situation and perform exceptionally well ... Araliya uses her vast knowledge and expertise to appropriately adapt to the situation and audience.
To keep her team motivated, Sammé made it a point to regularly touch base with every person on her team and create a mini network within the company. She noted that through this constant interaction that her team has been able to overcome a lot of obstacles before they became significant issues.
According to Sammé, a good leader has the ability to demonstrate empathy, since it helps build a connection or bond with another person. It also helps a leader understand the challenges someone else is facing and to be able to recognize when someone needs help or support.
Through the team efforts led by Sammé, the new unit was able to quickly land its first client, followed in short order by five additional clients. Prior to this, Featurespace did not have any AML customers using advanced AI and machine learning capabilities. Matt Mills, chief commercial officer at Featurespace, noted that although the process of building this new business could have taken years, Sammé did it in just a matter of months.
“The growth in the company’s AML business contributes close to 10% of its annual revenues - a phenomenal success,” said Mills.
Sammé said that Martina King, CEO of Featurespace and an honoree in this year’s PaymentsSource Most Influential Women in Payments, has played a key role in helping her grow her career.
“She's helped me set and achieve some lofty goals,” Sammé. “Since working with Martina, I've realized that titles don't matter; capabilities do. Rather than limiting me, she has both challenged me and given me a voice. I think about this all the time when talking to my own team.”
Nominating executive:
Matt Mills, chief commercial officer
What he says:
“Araliya has set herself apart from her peers by successfully pitching an incredibly innovative idea to a traditionally conventional audience. Her passion and intuition not only drive her success; they drive the company's success as prospects are eager to learn more and partner with her.”
