Valentina Kristensen is the Director of Growth & Communications at OakNorth – the next-generation credit science platform that’s creating a better borrowing experience for “Missing Middle” businesses. She began working with its co-founders, Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman, consultancy-side in June 2015, prior to the business’ launch later that year, and joined full-time in 2016, helping to build the brand and community.

Valentina is a passionate advocate for improving the female talent pipeline and closing the gender pay gap in financial services, sitting on the Steering Committee for FinTECHTalents, and being ElevatHer's first ambassador for the UK.

In 2018, Valentina participated in the Money 20/20 Europe Payments Race where she travelled from Istanbul to Amsterdam using only wearable payments technology – no cash or cards. In 2019, she participated in the round the world race where she only used cash, travelling across 13 countries in 12 days.