Mike Laven

Board Chair

An accomplished entrepreneur, Mike has built venture-backed companies towards growth and liquidity as a Founder, Executive, Board Member, advisor, and investor. He is currently CEO of Currencycloud one of the founding firms of the London ‘FinTech Revolution,”and led Currencycloud from its initial venture investment in 2012 through the $1B acquisition by Visa in 2021.

 

Over three decades, he has led many technology firms in London and Silicon Valley including CEO Infinity Financial Technology (Silicon Valley, IPO acquired by SunGard), CEO Cohera (Silicon Valley, acquired by PeopleSoft/Oracle), Board/COO Traiana (London/Tel Aviv, acquired by ICAP/NEX). He has been a Board Member at many early and growth stage tech firms in London, Paris, Brussels, Tel Aviv, Lisbon, Dublin, and New York. 

 

Mike is on the Board of RxArt a New York non-profit that places works by contemporary artists to improve the environment of children’s hospitals and a Trustee of Aurora Orchestra, a London based world class chamber orchestra. He started his career with the United Nations working in disaster recovery operations in India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines. 

 

Mike has a BA in Anthropology from Wesleyan University and advanced degrees from Harvard in Education and the School for International Training in International Affairs.