TrueTalk with Lisa Scott, Chief Strategy Officer

Lisa Scott joined TrueLayer in the summer of 2024 as our first Chief Strategy Officer. From her time at PayPal, Lloyds Banking Group and — most recently — as CEO for Europe at global payments network, Banked, Lisa knows the world of payments deeply. But what brought her to TrueLayer? What does her day-to-day look like? And what advice would she give to anyone else joining the TrueLayer team?

Tell us about your role.

I’m Chief Strategy Officer, or CSO for short. But what does that actually mean? I oversee our Product team, Product Design, Product Marketing, our Product/Bank Partnership team and the Brand team. I work with the organisation to create and implement roadmaps that balance short-term initiatives with long-term opportunity development for TrueLayer.

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People are the most important thing for me in an organisation — everyone here is energised, welcoming, a team-player and motivated.

What brought you to TrueLayer?

Firstly, the people. People are the most important thing for me in an organisation — everyone here is energised, welcoming, a team-player and motivated.

Secondly, it’s the mission. Having worked in the payments space for a long time, I believe that there are some very real problems that can be solved with Pay by Bank and I want to be part of the movement to bring that to life for both businesses and consumers.

What are you most excited about over the next year at TrueLayer?

We’ve had some great launches with major brands in 2024, you can now see Pay by Bank — powered by TrueLayer — on the checkouts of JustEat Takeaway and Ryanair, for example. I’m excited to continue that this year with ecommerce, and build on that with recurring payments as the wider industry is finally moving forward on recurring use cases.

What’s a typical day at TrueLayer for you?

I am not sure there is such a thing as a typical day! I come into the office three days a week unless it’s our monthly 'all-in week' where the entire company comes together. That’s a great time to catch up with people. It’s a mix of one-to-one conversations, team planning sessions, deep dives into initiatives, time with the exec and client meetings. We also have a fair few events we host at the office, so sometimes I get the opportunity to get involved in those too.

What advice would you give to someone on their first day at TrueLayer?

1. Be a sponge and ask lots of questions. There are no stupid questions at TrueLayer.

2. Get familiar with Slack and Notion. These are the goldmines of information and insight.

Strangest job you’ve ever had?

I’m not sure if it is strange as such, but perhaps so for a 21 year old woman. I did a building engineering degree, and my first job after university was working as a quantity surveyor on building sites — fully equipped with a hardhat and my steel-soled boots. I remember being the only female on site, where I developed my resilience skills and heckling responses pretty quickly.

If you weren’t doing what you’re doing, what might you have done?

I like a combination of science and art, and I was interested in being an architect. Seven years of study to qualify put paid to that though but I still love a bit of interior design.

When you’re not at work, where might we find you?

Chasing the sun. Sunshine is my happy place, so if it’s out walking, cycling or in the garden then I’m happy. But snorkelling in a warm sea is heaven.

Words to live by?

“Do unto others as you would have done unto you.” In short, be kind, be respectful, have empathy for others, spend time on building relationships with people, and you’ll get the reward.

Any books, podcasts or films you’d recommend?

I’m reading Stephen Fry’s Mythos at the moment. I never studied classics at school so never knew a lot of the myths but Stephen Fry’s interpretation and storytelling of them is superb. I constantly find myself saying “oh so that’s where that came from”. Heroes is already lined up as next on my reading list. I’m not quite ready for The Odyssey yet…