Matthew Briers, who has spent the last eight years as the Chief Financial Officer of Wise, has decided to step down from the role to focus on fully recovering from his accident last year.

According to an update by the company on Monday, Briers will step down by March 2024. The fintech said it would immediately commence searching for a full-time replacement for Briers.

Wise CFO to Depart after 8 Years

"After almost eight years, it's time for me to think about my life after Wise," Briers said in a statement. "Wise will likely have many CFOs in its first century, and this is simply me starting the process of handing over the reins to the next one. But, some of you may know that a year ago, I returned back to work at Wise after a quite horrible accident where I went under the wheels of a bus, and so, with this in mind, my focus will shift to making a full recovery."

Briers was involved in a bike accident last year, leading to the appointment of Kingsley Kemish, then the company's Financial Director, as the interim CFO. Later, he was promoted to Deputy CFO, a position he is holding to date.

"To support an orderly transition, I plan to remain as CFO into the new year. In this period, we'll be working out the transition," Briers added.

Briers joined Wise, then TransferWise, in 2015 from the UK offices of Google. Previously, he worked at Lloyds Banking Group, Bain & Company, Capital One, and L.E.K. Consulting.

Kristo Käärmann, the CEO of Wise, said: "Matt joined us at the time when only around 500,000 people had used Wise, and we were losing money. He helped us scale up into a global service that today 16 million people and businesses around the world know they can count on."

"Matt and I will be working closely through this period with other leaders at Wise to support the transition."

Leadership Crisis?

Käärmann is going to take a three months sabbatical later this year, between September and December. Harsh Sinha, the Chief Technology Officer at the company, will replace Käärmann as the interim CEO for the short term.

Meanwhile, Käärmann is under investigation as HM Revenues & Customs fined him £365,651 related to an outstanding tax bill of £720,495 for the 2017-18 tax year. The FCA is now probing if Käärmann's status as an 'approved person' is 'fit and proper.'

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